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TIL that during the 1918 flu pandemic, 62 Boston prisoners volunteered to be injected with infected tissue and sprayed with infectious aerosols with a promise of release if they survived. All of the prisoners lived, but the ward doctor died soon after.

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69Mww TIL that giant sequoias actually depend on forest fires to reproduce, due to their cones being serotinous and needing fire for them to dry out, open, and release their seeds.
kJLY4 TIL that Jack Black's mom was Judith Love Cohen, a NASA engineer who helped create the abort-guidance system that rescued the Apollo 13 astronauts. Also according to one obituary, she went to the office the day Jack was born and took a printout of a problem with her, that she solved later that day.
xVe45 TIL "Motherfucker" is Samuel L. Jackson's favorite affirmation to help overcome his stutter.
dDZ6Z TIL that the human eye is known to have internal circadian rhythms, and that morning-circulating-melatonin levels (a circadean/sleep health issue) were measured almost three times higher in people who are near-sighted/myopic
jN8DM TIL That there's a mysterious rare polio-like illness paralyzing little children. Its cause is unknown, and there is no treatment or cure. It spikes in cases every other year.