17. Many languages have the same roots.
English, Portuguese, Latvian, Pashto, and Greek all sound quite different these days, but all these languages have a common ancestor called Proto-Indo-European. Although we have no written examples of this, linguists have worked backwards from a variety of modern languages to try to recreate it. Using their reconstruction, the sentence “The king wanted a son” would be written as “H3rḗḱs súhxnum u̯l̥nh1to.”
18. A tick bite can make you allergic to red meat.
A lot of people have food allergies, but some are the result of an insect bite. In an unusual and growing trend, some people who get bitten by the Lone Star tick can experience a spontaneous reaction to red meat.
Beef, lamb, and pork (which are technically identified as red meat) can cause people with this allergy to experience headache, sneezing, runny nose, and nausea. It can even cause a person to be unable to breathe in extreme cases. For certain victims, the allergy has faded over time, but for some, it’s permanent.
