let sleeping dolphins lie

There is a tv show in the UK called QI. Its a comedy type question where people are asked almost impossible questions or where seemingly obvious questions have strange answers. As a lover of trivia and weird facts i often watch it and try and retain interesting stuff. Unfortunately I tend to only properly recall very weird stuff or totally useless facts that I will never again.

These facts can be useful in quizzes or to impress your partner when watching relevant shows on television. It means I can suddenly come up with impressive facts when a question is asked or just before the presenter shares the same fact. I can then either show off or annoy my fiancé even more by implying" everyone should know that".

The most recent example was during a holiday to Cornwall. We were dolphin and seal spotting when we noticed a seal on a distant rock. Soon after we saw what looked like the waves from some dolphins. My partner wondered how they managed to not crash into the rocks while asleep or drown if they slept and sank.

"That's because the sleep with half their brain resting and the other half awake and alert" Cue the stunned face I like to cause occasionally. The problem was , I remembered the fact but was struggling with the details. I said it was so they didn't drown because dolphins can only stay submerged for a limited amount of time, therefore they needed to be alert enough to stay safe.

For anyone wondering, its called unihemespheric sleep. One half of the brain is fully asleep and the other is awake, even with the eye open on the awake side of the head. Something I didn't recall was the reason the dolphin had to be half awake and half asleep is that they need to have a level of conscious to breathe at all. Humans breathe automatically whether awake or asleep, dolphins though have to consciously decide to breathe. Therefore if the whole brain slept there would be no breathing.

Another part of the trick is that its not always the same way round for the awake and asleep halves, the dolphins can alternate so that they get full rest and stay alive as well. The open eye monitors its location so can notice location and any impending dangers as well. The perfect defence mechanism for any predators approaching.

A very clever trick and a useful fact to use as you see fit. It can look impressive and make you sound clever, it does help though if you don't reveal your sources too widely as that can spoil the effect. I am sure there are some more impressive things that I should have recalled, even some more useful.

There have been times when watching quiz shows when I have even impressed myself with some of the answers I seem to conjure up. After watching certain older episodes of QI I have realised I remembered more then I remembered as much of my trivial knowledge came from this.

So recently while we were cuddling on the sofa and watching old episodes of QI my cover was early blown. The dolphin episode began and I was waiting for a poke in the ribs or similar punishment for pretending I knew the fact for years. Just as the relevant question was asked I braced myself and nothing happened.

Luckily my fiancé had dozed off and I was safe to steal some nice weird facts for another time.

As I am feeling generous here's a free one for you all to use. When I had n operation 38 years ago I was given a book with quizzes, puzzles and strange facts. On the back was a piece about a mathematician who had wanted to create a name for one followed by one hundred zeroes. Six zeroes is a million, so he asked his son about one with a hundred zeroes. His son suggested the word google, and that's where the name originated.