› added 3 months ago

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TIL: The scent of freshly cut grass is actually a plant's distress signal. When damaged, grass releases "green leaf volatiles" (GLVs), which act as a cry for help. These chemicals attract insects that protect the plant by eating herbivores, making the familiar smell a signal of defense.

VO5B TIL In Australia, cavities in the ground left by fossils will sometimes fill with a liquid containing dissolved opals. When the liquid evaporates, the opal remains, forming opalised fossils. The best example of this is a 6m long Plesiosaur skeleton, completely made of opal (more sources in comments)
9YaEX TIL that in 2004 McDonald's introduced "adult Happy Meal", which was positioned as a healthy choice, and included a salad, a fitness DVD, and a pedometer. The sales flopped and it was killed off after a few weeks.
ve9x TIL that Former KISS drummer, Peter Criss, as a prank dressed up like a Nazi and knocked on the door to Gene Simmons’ (who is descended from Holocaust survivors) hotel room and demanded to see his papers.
8MJZ TIL that Mahi-mahi stay with their mate and if one of the pair is caught, the partner stays in the same location awaiting its mate to reappear.
aw0xA TIL Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived 2 atomic bomb blasts. He was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the first bomb was dropped. He then returned to his home in Nagasaki. As he was explaining to his boss what happened, the second bomb was dropped. He was within 2 miles of ground zero both times.