› added 11 years ago

152

TIL this temple, recently discovered in Turkey, suggests Mesopotamians were not the first civilization, by about 3000 years.

Read more science.nationalgeographic.com

via reddit.com

v1Zkr TIL of an newly discovered organism called Lithoredo abatanica that eats stone and excretes sand. It is a shipworm, a group of burrowing animals known for eating woods and related to clams, but so different from known examples that it is both a new species and genus.
4k88J TIL that purple became associated with royalty due to a shade of it named Tyrian purple, which was created using the mucous glands of Murex snails. Even though it smelled horrible, this pigment was treasured in ancient times as a dye because its intensity deepened with time instead of fading away.
8amvb TIL that Fritz Haber, the "father of chemical warfare," created the Haber-Bosch process of synthesizing ammonia for fertilizers used in over half of the global population's current food production.
xZy0 TIL that in 2012, 400 Spanish soccer fans wanted to see their club play in the Europa League final held in Bucharest, Romania. By mistake, they chartered a plane to Budapest, Hungary.
16gp4 TIL adult diapers outsell baby diapers in Japan.