- [Narrator] Everyone's experienced it. You're at a social occasion
where someone's telling a story that happened to some guy they know and you can't help but think
hold up, that can't be true. Like how a buddy of theirs had a snake swim up through their bathroom toilet or how they heard
superglue is strong enough to stick furniture to the ceiling. Or even that the Dalai
Lama worked for the CIA. But here's the crazy part, all of those and many more so-called myths are actually factual. So, strap in and let's unpack some of the craziest stories and claims you probably always thought were nonsense proven to be true. (gentle music) (graphic whooshing) Glued upside down. For several decades now,
one myth has stuck around about rock bands with a love
for pranks back in the 1970s. According to rumors certain
rock-stars would use superglue to stick furniture to the
ceilings of their hotel rooms. Then, the next day, they'd
leave it as a surprise for the hotel staff who I'm
sure were absolutely thrilled. While the specifics of who
these bands were have been lost either to time or lawsuits the premise remains an intriguing one but could it have actually happened? Well, for starters, Gorilla Glue demonstrated the impressive strength of their particular brand back in 2008. They managed to lift an entire truck laden with additional weights to
the total of 8,000 pounds using two steel plates
Gorilla Glue together and secured to a crane. The world's greatest verifiers of myths the MythBusters also put
this question to the test back in 2012. Through a series of experiments, the crew were able to determine that a single drop of standard
generic-brand superglue could secure as much as
2,891 Newtons of Force or 650 pound weight without giving way. A mere seven drops lifted a
4,000 pounds station wagon. Seriously impressive stuff
and all made possible thanks to the unique chemical properties of super-strength adhesives. This stuff sticks thanks
to chemical reactions triggered by moisture
on an object's surface which rapidly form molecular bonds between the glue and the surface. These bonds strengthen as the glue seeps into any tiny cracks in an object's surface forming
a very secure bond indeed. With this knowledge, and with their experiments seeming hopeful the MythBusters set to work on putting the hotel room
furniture superglue myth to the test with a generous
dousing of adhesive on the underside of
several items of furniture they hoisted them up to the ceiling and allowed the glue to set the results a total success. Off course, if you're
interested in literally turning your house upside-down like this you'd need to make sure your
ceilings were strong enough to withstand the downward
force of heavy furniture. Otherwise, you might be left with a mess that'd take more than
some superglue to fix. So with that myth verified, here's something that's equally true you can guarantee yourself an endless supply of
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subscribing to be amazed. With fascinating fact-based
content posted daily you'll never be short of
brain-boosting enjoyment. Now, back to some crazy
myths that are actually true. Dalai Lama's CIA Secret. If someone told you, the Dalai
Lama used to work for the CIA you'd be reasonable to
assume it's total baloney. But as surprising as it seems
the claim is actually true. Off course, Gelug Buddhism's global leader wasn't exactly carrying
out covert CIA operations wearing dark sunglasses and an earpiece as fun as that may be to visualize it went a little differently in reality. Like many of history's
strangest recent moments it came in the midst of the Cold War when America was doing all it could to undermine the global
spread of communism. As part of this, between
the late 50s and mid-70s, the Dalai Lama received
$180,000 a year from the CIA. This money was part of a wider effort to uphold support for
anti-Chinese sentiment after Tibet was annexed by Communist China in the early 1950s. Specifically, the Dalai
Lama used the funds for pro-Tibet activities like funding international
support programs for Tibetan independence. This CIA program saw
some of the Cold War's biggest successes for the USA in terms of acquiring
Chinese military intelligence much of which was gathered by
Tibetan independence fighters in the period. Granted, the Dalai Lama, wasn't directly involved in street combat or spy infiltration missions although that would make for a great movie but that doesn't change the
fact that, for a period, the Dalai Lama was indeed
on the payroll of the CIA. Which just gets weirder
the more you say it. Duct tape magic. If you know anyone who's into
DIY, you've probably heard some of the bold
seemingly-unsubstantiated claims that get thrown around
regarding duct tape. Claims like, it's so
durable and waterproof you can make a kayak out of it or even fashion a bridge from it but as ridiculous as those sound they're completely true and they're only the tip of the iceberg of impossible-seeming uses for duct tape. Starting small, people online have shared their ingenious methods of crafting waterproof
clothing from duct tape. All that's required is
unraveling a load of the stuff into sheets to form a
sort of duct tape fabric. This can then be cut to the shape and size of the required clothes. Then, it's just a matter
of sticking them together at the seams to form spectacularly
weird waterproof outfits. You can even use colored tape if you wanna be a true fashion icon or make yourself a duct tape batman mask if you need a fancy-dress
costume in a pinch. If those waterproof
clothes aren't quite enough to combat flood season, there's another mythical-seeming
use for duct tape that actually works by combining it with some trash bags, PVC pipes and some wood for a seat it's actually possible to
craft a fully-operational kayak out of duct tape. When sealed tightly enough around a base layer of garbage bags secured to the PVC piping the duct tape is completely waterproof, and most importantly the kayak floats. But clothes and kayaks
are just the beginning thanks to the structural
strength and elasticity provided by its cotton
core and plastic coating alongside the sturdiness of its adhesive when stuck in place. Duct tape can actually
support the weight of a person you can prove this in a simple way by fashioning a hammock with little more than a couple of wooden poles but the ultimate form
of duct tape support is, a duct tape bridge. This impossible-seeming idea was another spectacular
myth proven plausible by the kings of such
things, the MythBusters. They approached the project by crafting a duct tape rope-bridge with supports and handrails constructed of duct tape
woven into ultra-secure yet workably-elastic ropes
over a 104 foot wide, 50 foot deep gap at a
shipyard, to great success. The team calculated how
many strands of tape were required to support
the weight of a person without major droopage then
combined strips 10 layers thick to form the walking path. All of this was then
reinforced with several layers of additional wrappings. There were even supporting
strands along the sides pulled taut to prevent the
bridge swaying around too much while in use. The only parts that weren't duct tape were the metal poles
attaching it to the ground at either side. In total, the build
required 200 rolls of tape with each being around 180 feet in length to prove the contraption's viability the MythBuster boys, Jamie
Hyneman and Adam Savage both crossed the bridge. Though it had grown somewhat
slacker and hence wobblier by the second crossing, it
was still an amazing success and a testament to the
almost-mythologically-useful material that is duct tape. As Jamie Hyneman himself put it, duct tape isn't a perfect
solution for anything but with some creativity in a pinch it's an adequate solution
for just about everything. (graphic whooshing) Singing to shatter glass. Whether you've seen it in
movies, or just heard about it people shattering glass with their voices is something many assume to
be merely an urban legend but, thanks to the physics
behind how sound works it's actually possible to do. This is because when
something emits a sound it causes the vibration of the molecules in the materials around it. The regularity with which
these vibrations are emitted is known as the sound's frequency. Thanks to certain inherent
properties of matter all objects have something
known as a resonant frequency at which the material most
efficiently turns sound waves into physical movement. For something like a wine glass the resonant frequency is roughly the sound you'd hear if you tap the glass and let it ring out. (glass chinking) When an object is subjected to its specific resonant
frequency at a very loud volume it can begin to vibrate to the extreme. In fact, if the source of this sound delivers the frequency with enough power like a voice singing very loudly, the vibration can be powerful enough to break the material
it's passing through. For glass, this means it
can shatter spectacularly. (glass shattering) (graphic whooshing) Cheesy cannonballs. In 1865, a naval battle
between Brazil and Uruguay spawned a tale so crazy
that for many years it was understandably
assumed to be pure myth. In this seafaring battle
one of Uruguay's ships reportedly ran out of cannonballs and was forced to turn
to other projectiles to keep fighting. So they gathered up
the stale cheese wheels they had onboard, popped
them into the cannons and fired away. According to the story, the cheese held its
shape surprisingly well and one cheese-wheel struck
the enemy ship's main sail with enough force to pierce it rendering the ship immobile sounds completely ridiculous, right? Well, this crazy tale was put to the test by our old pals the
MythBusters back in 2009. The crew tested a variety of
cheeses of varying hardness finding that cheeses like edam and gouda lose their structural integrity when fired from a traditional cannon. However, harder more elastic
cheeses like Spanish garrocha proved not only capable
of holding together during the launch but actually able to break through a ship's sail with the myth confirmed
this raises questions as to whether cheese-makers
as opposed to pirates were the real terrors of the high-seas. (graphic whooshing) Toilet invaders. At some point, you've
probably heard a crazy story about someone to their horror finding some kind of
animal in their toilet-bowl be it a snake, a rat, or
something else entirely these stories seem to
crop up again and again but is there any truth to them? Well, unfortunately, there
is, snakes for example, are a surprisingly common
find in people's bathrooms. They usually wriggle their
way up through sewers and into the pipes of people's homes attracted by warmth or the scent of food. Seeing as it's usually only
a relatively-short distance from a sewage pipe to the
plumbing of a ground-floor toilet the underwater journey
isn't difficult to survive. And with snakes' naturally-flexible bodies navigating the sharp bends in toilet pipes is far from impossible
especially for smaller snakes. Rats are similarly flexible
thanks to their ribs which are hinged at the spine. These flexible rib cages allow
them to compress their bodies into tight spaces and maneuver through the sharp bends of toilet pipes. They can also hold their breath underwater for up to three minutes and have enough stamina to tread water for three days straight so your toilet bowl is no biggie. Water dwelling amphibians like frogs have even less trouble
getting into people's toilets provided an opportunity. Sometimes in alarming quantities they're often drawn to toilets as bathrooms provide the ideal secluded, humid climate for themselves and their creepy-crawly prey. But creatures don't always
come up through the sewers. For toilet-invasions that occur higher up, like one instance of a corn
snake entering the toilet of someone's 19th-floor
New York City apartment the explanation may be a little different. While it's theoretically possible the snake might've been
capable of slithering all the way up 19 floors of plumbing it's unlikely to have
come from the sewers. Seeing as the type of
corn snake discovered was native to Florida and
South Eastern US States not the Bronx where it appeared it was most likely an escaped pet. The snake was concluded to have
escaped someone else's home in the apartment complex,
taking an aquatic misadventure through the building's
interconnected piping. Not that it makes the prospect of a high-rise toilet-snake
any more comforting. So, it looks like a creature in the toilet isn't such a crazy fear after all. Better double-check next time before you sit yourself down
on your porcelain throne. Motorcycling on water. Oh, bro, I could totally ride
my motorbike over that lake. It's a line you'd probably expect to hear uttered by some overly confident drunk guy at a lakeside party without any evidence ever
surfacing to back it up. But crazy as it sounds, the societal myth of people
riding motorbikes so fast that they skim across the tops of lakes may actually hold water as Jamie Hyneman of the
MythBusters proved in 2013 it just takes a lot of
speed and balls of steel. Jamie accelerated a dirt-bike
up to 80 miles per hour and rode it straight onto
the surface of a lake making it a full 300 feet
across before it sunk. So, how's something like this possible? Well, it all comes down to weight, speed and a smooth entry. To make it possible in the first place the transition from ground to water also has to be extremely smooth
and gradual with no bumps in order to minimize
deceleration on entry. Once the bikes are on the water some complicated physics take over. As dirt-bike tires are
designed to get traction in mud this transfers surprisingly well to gaining traction in water. With the wheels spinning fast enough the water momentarily acts somewhat like a semi-solid material
allowing the bike to push itself along across the surface. Given enough driving power,
a lightweight motorbike like the one Jamie used can generate significant enough forces to counteract the water's
friction as well as gravity for a short while. As the water's resistance gradually decelerates the bike
however, it eventually sinks. But even if continually
riding isn't possible MythBusters still proved it is possible to take a short motorcycle ride on water not that you should, of course. Hybrid animals. While the phrase scientists
have created hybrid animals sounds like something you might hear shouted on a radio conspiracy show, it's actually not a myth at all. In 2019, Chinese scientists successfully bred monkey-pig hybrids by injecting cells from cynomolgus
monkeys into pig embryos. Out of a large sample size a handful of the embryos
that developed and were born were found to have successfully
integrated the monkey cells into the formation their bodies. Those primate cells
reportedly accounted for, between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 cells in the piglets bodies which while being seemingly small numbers officially rendered
them pig-monkey hybrids. While the resulting hybrids weren't quite as drastically-alien
nor science-fiction-y in appearance as you might hope it's still a big step and
possibly a glance into the future. The ultimate aim of research like this is to breed animals that
can grow entire organs of different species inside their bodies. Eventually, scientists hope
this will help them figure out how to produce human organs in animals to help with the drastic
lack of organ donors available to those needing transplants could this be a good thing or do you think humans are playing God? Let me know in the comments below. But there are
non-genetically-modified hybrids too which have been around much longer like ligers and tigons
huge fascinating felines lead to the result of
breeding lions with tigers. Ligers in particular have been bred since the late-18th century and tend to grow larger than
either of their parent species as big as 11.8 feet long. Then there are grolar
bears or pizzly bears. A result of breeding between
grizzly bears and polar bears I assure you, while these
may look like Photoshop jobs pizzlies are 100% real, though they're tricky
to breed in captivity and even rarer in the wild. Ligers and Pizzlies are far from the only hybrids in our world though. There are zorses, or
zebra-horses, geeps or goat-sheep and even camas or camel-lamas
to name but a few. With an ever-increasing number of bizarre animal hybrids existing today the ancient myths of hybridized monsters are seeming more-and-more like
predictions of the future. Rocks versus lawnmowers. After the release of the fourth
"Final Destination" movie in 2009, one scene spawned rumors about a previously
undiscussed backyard danger. The myth that emerged was
that if lined up just right the rapidly-spinning
blade underneath a mower could send a rock flying with all the deadly force of
a bullet sounds ridiculous but when the MythBusters
tested the theory in 2015 their results were mind-mowing. The team measured the speed at which spinning lawnmower
blades can fling stones and the fastest of their results was an impressive 400 feet per second. While that didn't come close to the 1,000 to 1,400 feet
per second they measured firing a 357 pistol
there's more to lethality than just the speed of the projectile. As the rocks flung up by a mower can easily be much larger
and heavier than a bullet the damage caused could be
greater even at lower speeds. This is all thanks to a
classic little physics formula that states force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration. Using this basic principle, the MythBusters worked out
that despite much lower speeds some higher-mass rocks flung by lawnmowers were actually able to deliver more force than a speeding bullet. So next time someone's mowing make sure to look where you're going I swear it helps. If you've ever stood on a Lego brick you've probably also
shouted an impressive array of swear-words in response that you wouldn't say in
front of your grandma. Indeed, many people insist there's nothing like a good
bit of swearing to ease pain but is there any truth to it? Well, it turns out swearing is indeed one of humans' most effective
natural painkillers. In 2009, researchers at
the Keele University tested what effect swear-words
had on pain management by seeing how long participants
could keep their hands in containers of ice-filled water. Half of the participants were
advised to say a swear-word while dunking while the rest were asked to say a neutral word instead. Those who swore were generally able to keep their hands submerged much longer than those saying neutral words. While countless experiments have since re-confirmed the conclusion that swearing somewhat eases pain the reasons why are still
somewhat mysterious. Some experts theorize that
doing something emotive like swearing may trigger
the fight-or-flight response. This could help with by
increasing levels of adrenaline which is effective at reducing
our awareness of pain. While the research remains
somewhat uncertain at the minute there's little doubt a few F-bombs will help the next time you stub your toe. However, this technique is
not recommended for teachers, customer service assistants, or clergymen. Male lactation. If you thought the myths I've
covered so far were crazy you ain't seen nothing yet. For many years, rumors
have floated around society that in rare cases it's possible for men to produce breast milk like women can and shockingly, it is
occasionally possible. In fact, there's even a phenomenon
known as "witch's milk," where new-born babies
either male or female spontaneously, lactate
for a couple of weeks after their birth. This is caused by the hormone prolactin which facilitates breast-milk
production in new mothers and can occasionally
pass from the placenta into an infant's body. Despite how strange it seems, this isn't usually considered
anything to worry about and typically stops
after a couple of weeks. But lactation in adult males
is a whole other story. Men have relatively similar
breast tissue to women though with far fewer
milk-producing lobules and ducts but lactation is still
a very real possibility. In men, this bizarre phenomenon is typically associated with
a deficiency of testosterone, a hormone that regulates
things like body-hair growth and the development of
the male private parts. Often, this deficiency is due to an issue with the pituitary gland in the brain or medication that affects
the pituitary gland which may also cause it
to over produce prolactin. That said, various studies suggest the mere act of a father attempting to breastfeed their baby may be enough to stimulate
the production of milk. The men of the Aka tribe of
Central Africa for example, have been repeatedly documented
breastfeeding their children with enough success to fully nourish them. This, and a surprisingly
large number of other examples the world over has spawned
fascinating research with some eyebrow-raising conclusions. It turns out, cuddling and
spending time with babies increases the amount of
prolactin in men's bloodstreams, while lowering testosterone levels. And, as we've seen, those two paired up are the perfect ingredients
for fatherly breast milk. As more people become
aware of this possibility, dad of the year contests might
start to look very different. Deadly dip, there are
some myths in society that really leave you wondering what kind of maniac came up with them. One such so-called myth states that you can dip your
hand into molten lead without being burned. Now, lead melts at 621 degrees Fahrenheit, or 327 degrees Celsius. So firstly, I have to stress,
do not try this at home. But truthfully, it is actually possible if the person dunks their
hand in water first. The reason this is possible to do without ending up with
crispy-fried fingers, is thanks to something known
as the Leidenfrost effect. This occurs when a liquid boils rapidly and forms a thermal barrier of gas upon the surface it's boiling on. When someone dips their wet hand in lead the principle is the same. The layer of water on
the hand rapidly boils, creating a temporary barrier of gas that stops the heat of the
lead reaching the skin. Off course, if the hand remained in there much longer than a split-second it'd come out looking
like well-charred brisket. But seeing as it is technically possible to dip your hand in molten lead the myth stands confirmed. Which means there is absolutely no need for you to try it yourself. Do of any more myths
unexpectedly proven true? Let me know in the comments section below, or email me at stories@beamazed.com. Thanks for watching! (upbeat music)
