› added 12 years ago

91

TIL Peacock feathers are actually brown, but have microscopic structures that interfere with light that make the bright iridescence.

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Vj0G TIL that Russian scientists were able to revive an arctic flower, extinct for 32,000 years, from a seed that’s been borrowed by an ice age squirrel, buried in Siberian permafrost.
JBmk TIL Geckskin is a superstrong adhesive based on Gecko feet that can hold up to 700lbs on a smooth wall. Developed at UMass (and funded by DARPA), it can easily attach and detach heavy everyday objects such as televisions or computers to walls, as well as medical and industrial applications.
YpZR7 TIL that the @ symbol was chosen for the first electronic mail because the developer "was mostly looking for a symbol that wasn’t used much."
vPa0B TIL about the BAC Three-Eleven, a proposed widebody airliner that would have competed with the Airbus A300.
1aAYW TIL it was assumed narcissists gravitated toward powerful positions in the workplace, but recent research suggests it's the other way around -- power itself may create narcissists.