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TIL Pinecones are a type of fruit

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WkpN9 TIL Hennig Brand, a German alchemist in the 1660s, was convinced he could distill gold from human urine. After amassing 1,500 gallons of urine and boiling it, he discovered the element phosphorus.
7rbLX TIL that falling in love costs you, on average, two of your closest friends
4X5Lo TIL dogs are perfectly capable of digesting starches despite being descendants of "carnivorous" wolves. Even though they share most of their genetics, modern dogs carry 22 copies of a gene that codes for an enzyme that breaks down starches, while wolves only carry 2 copies of it.
w0K7 TIL while Tolkien’s dwarves were often seen as greedy, they had special resistance to outside influence. Men gifted nine Rings from Sauron were corrupted into the Nazgûl, but Dwarves were unaffected, save by an increase in their goldlust and hatred for anything that stood between them and treasure.
E1v1w TIL Some metals are so reactive that they explode on contact with water