› added 8 years ago

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TIL: Dr Barry Marshal was convinced that H. pylori bacteria caused stomach ulcers, but no one believed him. Since it was illegal to test his theory on humans, he drank the bacteria himself, developed ulcers within days, treated them with antibiotics and went on to win a Nobel prize

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KYDGa TIL: That fungi have a range of vital roles from helping plants draw water + nutrients from soil to medicines that can lower blood cholesterol or enable organ transplants. But they have a darker side: devastating trees, crops, other plants across the world and wiping out animals such as amphibians.
epWj6 TIL Boss Tweed was convicted in 1877 of stealing between $25 and 45 million of NYC taxpayer money through corruption, but later estimates puts that figure as high as $200 million ($5 billion in 2023)
0wKYR TIL legal scholars use the terms malum prohibitum and malum in se to distinguish between offences which are legally or morally forbidden. The former is wrong simply for rules prohibiting them whilst the latter is wrong as it is seen as an innately immoral act.
pYmoA TIL the earliest written version of Revelations says that 616 is the number of the beast. Why it changed to 666 is anybody's guess.
8adQP TIL in 2016, 5,712 Native American women were reported missing. Only 116 were logged in the DOJ database.