From astonishing, amazing and surprising science and history facts to the little-known stories hidden inside bigger science and historical events, The Big Book of Facts is a fascinating tour through the human body, the environment, atomic physics, and technology, as well as social, political, and cultural history. You'll learn about the world through absorbing stories and interesting tidbits such as …

• Babies start laughing at just a few weeks old; there are ten discernible types of laughter; and laughter spurs our appetite for food.
• Though Shakespeare mentioned Valentine's Day in "Hamlet," sending paper cards to a beloved wasn't a fad until the eighteenth century, and by the 1840s, insulting Valentine cards also became common.
• Like fingerprints, every tongue on Earth has a unique print.
• The U.S. Postal Service's history, the Pony Express, … and the short-lived (but legal) practice of mailing children.
• The prevalence of handwashing through history, the invention of toilet paper in the 1400s, and Sir John Harington's invention of the flushable toilet for Queen Elizabeth I.
• Though they are all differently shaped by virtue of being an assembly of water droplets, there are ten basic kinds of clouds.
• A basic and quick history of cash in America, including Alexander Hamilton and the Bank of the United States, Benjamin Franklin's efforts to thwart counterfeiting, $100,000 bills, and the fact that more than 85% of the world's money is digital only.
• Government agencies in the U.S. and France both agree that the measure of a second is determined by how long it takes a cesium atom to vibrate just over nine billion times.
• The history of children's games such as hide-and-seek, blindman's bluff, and jacks that date back to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
• And much, much more.

An absorbing guide to history and science, this feast of facts and compelling stories recounts the physics and science that control the universe and the revolutionary ideas, acts, and inventions that changed the world. Engrossing, engaging, and enlightening, The Big Book of Facts is a resource for discovering scientific principles, history-makers, and the fun oddities that make up our world. Wide-ranging and fact-filled with nearly 160 illustrations, this information-rich tome also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index for those scrambling for more information.