Cheese is always "grate." I mean, when you have cheese, it's the sign you're having a "gouda" day, and you could "disa-brie" ... I mean, disagree.

But everything is always "cheddar" — excuse me — better, with cheese.

Okay, okay, a little cheesy, I know.

When it comes to Swiss cheese, it feels like something is missing.

Why does it have holes?

First off, the cheese experts actually call those holes "eyes."

SEE MORE: Why Do We Have An Appendix?

And they're caused by carbon dioxide bubbles that form in the cheese.

Time to put on our scientist cap and put Swiss cheese under the microscope.

Bacterial culture called "propionibacterium"— or "props" for short, are behind the eyes.

This bacteria is in hay, grass and soil and ends up in milk from cows.

That milk makes its way to a cheese factory where it's standardized, pasteurized, and brined.

After that, the cheese sits in a warm room which helps the props form those carbon dioxide bubbles.

Those bubbles are left alone while the cheese ferments, resulting in its eyes.

The holes used to be seen as a deformity, and cheesemakers tried to eliminate them.

But today, they're a distinct part of Swiss cheese.

In fact, the cheese industry even pays the government to rate its cheese.

Grade-A Swiss cheese has eyes that are between three-eights of an inch and thirteen-sixteenths of an inch in diameter.

And with more than 300 million pounds of Swiss cheese produced annually in the U.S. — that's a lot of eyes.

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Just as Earth's land surface has enormous peaks and valleys, the oceanic world has a similarly varied topography.

Related video above: How Do We Know That the Challenger Deep is the Deepest Part of the Ocean?

Perhaps the most intriguing of these features is the Mariana Trench — a chasm in the western Pacific Ocean that spans more than 1,580 miles and is home to the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point on Earth's underwater surface that plunges more than 36,000 feet down.

That's nearly three times deeper than the site where the wreckage of the RMS Titanic lies in the Atlantic Ocean, and it's deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

Here are some fascinating facts about this deep-sea phenomenon.

1. 'Titanic' director James Cameron is one of the few people who have visited

Few human expeditions have ventured to the Challenger Deep.

The first came in 1960 with the historic dive of the Trieste bathyscaphe, a type of free-diving submersible. During the dive, passengers Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh said they were stunned to see living creatures where scientists once imagined it was impossible for anything to survive.

"Right away, all of our preconceptions about the ocean were blown out the window," Dr. Gene Feldman, an oceanographer emeritus at NASA said. He spent more than 30 years at the space agency.

James Cameron, director of the 1997 film "Titanic," was the next deep-sea explorer to follow. He piloted a submersible — one that he personally had helped design — to about 35,787 feet, setting a world record in 2012.

2. A plastic bag was found in the trench

Another explorer who returned to the site was Victor Vescovo, a Texas investor who journeyed 35,853 feet down and claimed a world record in 2019.

Vescovo gave depressing insight into humankind's impact on these seemingly untouchable remote locations when he observed a plastic bag and candy wrappers at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

A handful of explorers have trekked to the Challenger Deep since then, but the expeditions are not common — and the journey is extremely dangerous.

For every 33 feet traveled beneath the ocean's surface, the pressure on an object increases by one atmosphere, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. An atmosphere is a unit of measure that's 14.7 pounds per square inch. A trip to the Challenger Deep can put a vessel under pressure that is "equivalent to 50 jumbo jets," Feldman noted.

3. It lies in the hadal zone, named for the god of the underworld

Much like the Earth's atmosphere, the ocean can be described in terms of layers.

The uppermost portion is called the epipelagic zone, or the sunlight zone, and extends just 660 feet below the water's surface, according to NOAA.

The mesopelagic zone, or the so-called twilight zone, stretches from the end of the sunlight zone to about 3,300 feet.

Then there's the bathypelagic zone, also called the midnight zone, and, beneath that, the abyssopelagic zone — as in, the abyssal zone — that extends from 13,100 feet to 19,700 feet. That's nearly 4 miles underwater. Within the abyssal zone, few life forms can survive, the water is completely devoid of light, and temperatures are near freezing.

But the Challenger Deep lies even further — in the hadalpelagic zone or the hadal zone. It's named for Hades, the Greek god of the underworld thought to rule over the dead.

4. It's home to unique aquatic life and mud volcanoes

The hadal zone is one of the least explored habitats on Earth. At bone-crushing depths with no sunlight, it was long thought that nothing could survive there.

But that belief has been dispelled.

"Even at the very bottom, life exists. In 2005, tiny single-celled organisms called foraminifera, a type of plankton, were discovered in the Challenger Deep," according to NOAA.

Discoveries at the Challenger Deep have included colorful rocky outcrops and bottom-dwelling sea cucumbers.

A series of undersea mud volcanoes and hydrothermal vents in the Mariana Trench also support unusual life forms, according to NOAA. Despite the highly acidic and infernally hot water produced by hydrothermal vents in mud volcanoes, exotic species, and microscopic organisms there are able to survive.

In the absence of sunlight, the creatures instead benefit from the nutrient-rich waters belched out from hydrothermal vents. The life-supporting medium results from chemical reactions between the seawater and magma rising from beneath the ocean floor.

5. The Mariana Trench was designated as a US national monument in 2009

The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument was established in 2009 in part to protect the rare organisms that thrive within its depths.

Objects of interest include the submerged ecosystem and its life forms, such as deep-sea shrimp and crabs, and — higher up in the water column — stony coral reefs.

"A great diversity of seamount and hydrothermal vent life (is) worth preservation," according to NOAA.

The entire national monument protects about 95,000 square miles.

6. It's difficult to know just how deep the trench goes

The ocean floor remains one of the most mysterious places in the universe.

In fact, "we have better maps of the moon and Mars than we do of our own planet," according to Feldman.

Though people have been exploring the ocean's surface for tens of thousands of years, only about 20% of the seafloor has been mapped, according to 2022 figures from NOAA.

Given the high interest in the Mariana Trench, however, researchers have made several efforts to give increasingly detailed pictures of its features. But that's not easy: Due to the vastness and deepness of the bottommost ocean zone, scientists must rely on sonar, or acoustic, technology to attempt to give a full picture of what's below.

Because instrumentation and technology are constantly improving, the estimated depth of the Challenger Deep has been updated as recently as 2021 to about 35,876 feet.

The Cincinnati Bengals are one week away from playing in the Super Bowl after 33 years. The Bengals have been to the big game twice already, but have yet to bring home the Vince Lombardi Trophy, now's their chance. As we prepare for the Super Bowl, here are some interesting facts about the two teams before the game: The Super Bowl match-up between the Bengals and Rams marks the first time these teams have met in a championship.Both the Rams and Bengals originated in Ohio. The Cleveland Rams were founded in 1936. They competed in the AFL for their inaugural season before moving to the NFL in 1937. The Rams stayed in Cleveland through 1945, winning the NFL Championship Game before relocating to Los Angeles one month later. This is the Bengals first Super Bowl appearance since 1988, when they lost to the 49ers, 20-16. The Bengals have appeared in three Super Bowls total, including this one. Their first two appearances were in 1981 and 1988 and both games were against the 49ers. They lost to San Francisco both times, and each time by one score.The Rams are making their fifth Super Bowl appearance, and their second in the last four years.The Rams last appeared in the Super Bowl in 2018 when the Patriots defeated them, 13-3, in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl of all time.The Rams last won the Super Bowl in 1999 when they beat the Titans, 23-16. The 1999 Rams team earned the nickname "The Greatest Show on Turf" for their record-breaking offense.This matchup marks the first time in Super Bowl history that both teams entered the playoffs as No. 4 seeds.Both teams quarterbacks are former No. 1 overall draft picks. Joe Burrow missed the last six games of his rookie 2020 season due to a knee injury. A little over a year ago he suffered a torn ACL and MCL, as well as PCL and meniscus damage. Matthew Stafford, the Rams quarterback, is finishing his first season in Los Angeles. He spent the first 12 years of his NFL career with the Detroit Lions.Stafford appeared in three playoff games during his 12 years in Detroit, winning none of them. However, he's gone 3-0 in the post season in his first year with the Rams.Cooper Kupp, just finished a historic year for the Rams. Kupp's 145 catches and 1,947 receiving yards rank second all-time. Kupp is behind Michael Thomas (149 catches) and Calvin Johnson (1,964 yards).Kupp also broke the all-time record for most scrimmage yards by a receiver, with 1,965. The Bengals top receiver, Rookie Ja'Marr Chase, broke a franchise record with 1,455 yards on the season, the fourth-most among all NFL wideouts.Of all receivers with at least 500 yards, Chase ranked second in the NFL in yards per catch (18), behind the 49ers' Deebo Samuel. His 13 touchdowns ranked third in the league.Rams receiver, Odell Beckham Jr., spent the first six games of the season on the Browns.Rams coach Sean McVay, 36, is looking for his first Super Bowl win, and to become the youngest head coach to win the Lombardi Trophy. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin currently holds that record for winning the 2009 Super Bowl at 36.McVay will be up against Bengals coach Zac Taylor, 38, making them the youngest pair of Super Bowl head coaches in the game's history.Taylor worked under McVay before becoming Bengals coach. He spent one year as the Rams' assistant wide receivers coach in 2017 and one as the team's QBs coach in 2018. The Bengals, will be the official home team for the 2022 Super Bowl due to the NFL alternating the designation between conferences each year. This means they'll use the Rams home-stadium locker room during the game.As the official road team, the Rams will call the coin toss before the opening kickoff.

In the grand scheme of holidays, Groundhog Day gets kind of a bad rap. It's not one that gets you a day off work, or presents or anything that great. In fact, it's a 50/50 chance of something not great (a seemingly endless winter). Yet, people love celebrating it anyway, and the quirky little holiday has legs much longer than the rodent at its core.Groundhog Day has origins in Germany, where hedgehogs were first used as the season-predicting mammals, according to Groundhog.org. Since hedgehogs aren't native to the United States, another hibernating animal was chosen in their stead: the groundhog.The year 1886 marked the first time Groundhog Day appeared in the local newspaper in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The tradition continued to grow and is now celebrated all over the world.Since the entire holiday hinges on a pudgy rodent's weather predictions, it's natural to question how often Punxsutawney Phil is actually correct. In one study done by the Washington Post, over a 30-year span, the groundhog (and his descendants) were technically correct more years than not, but it really depended on which part of the country was being examined. Overall, the Post says, "Much like how you won your last coin toss, Phil is 'right' in these regions because of chance."While the exact calculations are disputed, IFC's Simon Gallagher estimates Bill Murray's character in the classic film "Groundhog Day" relived the day 12,403 days — that’s 33 years and 358 days!During the Prohibition era, Punxsutawney Phil "threatened" to impose 60 more weeks of winter if he wasn't allowed a stiff drink. But luckily, even he wasn't a fan of an endless winter.