› added 10 years ago

95

TIL that a Japanese mathematician independently invented much of calculus

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gg49 TIL that the poison in false morels, a type of mushroom, is metabolized into rocket fuel
78OeM TIL that former Harvard President Lawrence Summers resigned in large part due to a speech in which he said the reason for underrepresentation of women in the hard sciences was partly due to genetics
1a7jO TIL of the great escape attempt of Juan, an Andean spectacled bear in Berlin zoo. Juan paddled across a moat using a log as a raft, scaled a wall and then finally appeared to commandeer a bicycle before being shot with a tranquiliser gun.
Y7kEr TIL One of the only pieces of Hitler's dream reconstruction of Berlin as Germania is an enormous concrete cylinder in the Tiergarten neighborhood. It's called the Schwerbelastungskörper which translates as "heavy load-bearing body." It was to test the load-bearing capability of the ground.
m1eXp TIL in WWII, the US Army, with the approval of Walt Disney, had Mickey Mouse gas masks made for civilian children.