› added 2 months ago

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TIL you can “rewire” a fruit fly’s body plan by misexpressing HOX genes so it grows legs where antennae should be (or other body parts in the wrong place) because these genes act like positional identity switches during development.

Read more learn.genetics.utah.edu

via reddit.com

l00K TIL Japanese police fire paint-balls at fleeing vehicles so that other police vehicles can see them and to identify them at a later date if they get away. The paint is Bright orange and difficult to remove.
wLZvE TIL that in 1999, 40 million people suddenly lost power in the Philippines, igniting fears of a possible military coup, only to find out that the cooling pipes of one power grid had sucked up 50 dump truck’s worth of jellyfish which caused the outage.
grAo7 TIL that "Total Eclipse of the Heart," performed by Bonnie Tyler, was originally titled "Vampires in Love." Songwriter Jim Steinman wrote it while working on a musical of Nosferatu, with lyrics about the power of darkness and love's place in the dark.
8PDX TIL the swedish writer Astrid Lindgren had to pay 102% tax in 1974. She wrote a satirical short story about it, which likely changed the outcome of the upcoming election.
N7AbM TIL: Boxxy does voice acting and even helped make an RPG, BoxxyQuest: The gathering storm!