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TIL scientists in Israel planted 2000 years old seeds from an extinct date palm species and successfully grew a sapling

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p8NvA TIL about HERA, a telescope searching for the oldest stars in the universe, from a period known as the Cosmic Dark Ages. And it is built from stuff you could buy at any local hardware store. "This is the beauty of low frequency radio astronomy: one doesn’t need custom, expensive hardware."
O5va TIL no Democratic candidate for President has gotten a majority of the white vote since 1964
pY7RZ TIL that railway tracks and tunnels undergo mandatory nightly checks in Tokyo
OOvR TIL Sometimes a heart transplant involves keeping the original so that the recipient can have two beating hearts in their chest
jNmWn TIL that in firing squads, one or more soldiers are given a magazine loaded with blanks so that each soldier can believe that they did not fire the fatal shot. For this reason, it is sometimes named the "conscience round"