› added 7 years ago

161683

TIL that a cat once co-authored a physics paper. In 1975, a physicist had just finished writing a paper and was ready to publish but realized that he had used ‘we’ instead of 'I’ throughout, despite being the sole author. Not wanting to edit the paper, he listed his cat, Chester, as a co-author.

4LeX TIL dead ants emit a chemical that tells other ants to move the body to a sort of burial ground. If this chemical is sprayed on a live ant, other ants will treat it as a dead ant, regardless of what the live/dead ant does.
KOg4B TIL That Jackie Chan and his stunt team are blacklisted by all insurance companies, forcing him to pay for all costs out of his own pocket | Jackie voluntarily agreed to pay for the cost of the injuries sustained during a stunt for the entire life of the injured team member
neE9o TIL that when America's first rocket scientist, Robert Goddard, theorized that rockets could reach the moon, the New York Times harshly criticized him and wrote that he "lacked the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." 49 years later, Apollo 11 succeeded and the NYT published a retraction.
m184R TIL Some lizards do push-ups as a part of their mating rituals (notably the western fence lizard), because of this the Mexican Spanish word for lizard, Lagartijas, also means push-ups.
WkOLB TIL the reason for feeling uneasy in an empty parking lot or school hallway is because they are Liminal Spaces - only serving as a waiting area, causing us to feel on edge