› added 7 years ago

135

TIL that Karen Wetterhahn, a researcher at Dartmouth College, died within a year of exposure to merely 2 drops of dimethyl mercury on her gloved hand.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VMdWD TIL: Whistling to cat call a woman is just the whistle to recall your dog - but in reverse
jNmeR TIL The Maya civilization used chocolate as money and the disruption of the cacao supply which fueled political power may have led to an economic breakdown, causing the collapse of the empire.
BrjLk TIL: Dandelions are called "pissenlit" in French, which means "piss the bed" because the tea made from their roots is a powerful diuretic
4kVEa TIL that Wall Street gets it's name from the wall built around the Dutch colony in New York
J1Nm8 TIL bees can be trained to smell landmines and other explosives by sticking out their proboscises.