Research Facts

The U.S. Government spent $277,000 on pickle research in 1993.

Research shows that people are happiest on Saturday evenings, when they can finally relax after a busy week and spend time with friends.

The U.S. government spends millions of dollars annually on potato research—recent programs have allocated $1.85 to $4 million per year to develop new potato varieties!

Medical research has found substances in mistletoe that can slow down tumor growth.

Money can buy happiness, but researchers have found that its emotional well-being benefits max out at a salary of about 75K a year.

More than 17 million people worldwide dumped ice water on their own heads in 2014, and the Ice Bucket Challenge helped pay for Project MinE, a global hunt for ALS genes. In 2016 its team of more than 80 scientists in 11 countries found NEK1, a gene whose variants turn up in nearly 3 percent of ALS cases in North America and Europe.

Researcher Dominique Potvin spent years designing GPS harnesses for Australian magpies - magnetic releases so only she could remove them. Within 10 minutes of fitting the fifth bird, an untracked female magpie freed a younger bird's harness. By day three, all five trackers were gone. It was the first documented case of birds helping each other remove tracking devices.