› added 4 years ago

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TIL of the frog galvanoscope. The first electrical voltage testers were made by using a frog's leg with the sciatic nerve still attached and connecting two points on the leg to a potential electrical source.

8GrL TIL that six soviet cosmonauts, while working in space on the MIR station, reported to mission control all six of them were seeing aliens with human faces and large wings. Pravda confirmed the report and said that it was a group hallucination.
WkpZN TIL about Richard L. McKinley, who died in a nuclear plant accident. His body ended so contaminated that had to be buried in a lead-lined casket which was then sealed in concrete and placed in a metal vault and cannot be moved from its location without the approval of the Atomic Energy Commission.
J1OGj TIL about Capablanca chess. Invented in the 1920s by José Raúl Capablanca (world chess champion). It had two new pieces and played on a 10x8 board. He also had a 10x10 board version. Over the years this inspired many more variants.
0wKmy TIL that in 2017, a dead grasshopper was found in an 1889 Vincent van Gogh painting. A scientist discovered that the insect’s thorax and abdomen were missing and there was no sign of movement in the surrounding paint. So, it was already dead when it somehow landed on the artist’s wet canvas.
b98VQ TIL about Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor who was committed to the asylum for recommending people to wash hands. He later died from the blows of his guards.