the-scientist.com

oRZR8 TIL that a woman living in California in the 1940s housed thousands of spiders in her home to harvest and sell their silk to the US military for bomb sites during WW2. The government's couriers would arrive to pick up the silk with empty briefcases handcuffed to their wrists.
b9Ko0 TIL the remains of a species of whale that was unidentified for 30yrs was found to be a narwhal-beluga whale hybrid with features of both. While a narwhal is toothless except males who have a spiraled tusk and belugas have 40 teeth the hybrid has 18 and some look similar to a narwhals spiraled tusk
neAMW TIL that a genetic mutation can cause a person's bone density to be as 8 times as high as normal people. People with such mutations have known to survive car crashes with no injuries but cannot swim as they will 'sink like a stone' in water.