The BBC presents a list of 100 things we didn’t know last year. While the vast majority of the list was news to me, I was at first surprised to find one item that made it to the list:

34. Kryptonite exists.

Originally I thought kryptonite actually existed for some time, but I was wrong. Krypton, one of the noble gases on the periodic table of elements, does indeed exist. The planet Krypton from the Superman comics was named for it.

The Beeb reported that a kryptonite rock was discovered last year. Contrary to Superman lore, the mineral is white and harmless, but will glow a pinkish-orange when under an ultraviolet light. (list link via kottke)