› added 5 years ago

103

TIL what Smartdust is... Smartdust is defined as a system of many tiny microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) such as sensors, robots, or other devices, that can detect, for example, light, temperature, vibration, magnetism, or chemicals. They are usually operated on a computer network wirelessly...

LZOZ TIL that Avocados are optimally adapted to be eaten and digested by an animal far larger than any alive today in the Americas. It is theorized they originally evolved their current form to allow their seeds to be spread by animals like the extinct giant ground sloth.
4kkAo TIL of 'brood parasitic' Cuckoo Bumblebees - they don't make nests or form colonies; their queens aggressively invade the nests of other bumblebee species, kill the resident queens, and then lay their own eggs, which are cared for by the resident workers.
POje TIL that Bridgetown, Barbados is the only city outside of North America that George Washington visited (with his brother Lawrence to treat his Tuberculosis). While there, 19 year-old George survived Smallpox, giving him immunity to the disease which later killed so many of his Revolutionary solders.
YMGB TIL in Korea, live baby octopus is served still wriggling on your plate - it is recommended that you chew it thoroughly before swallowing so that the tentacles don’t latch onto your throat while it goes down
R54J6 TIL Barbara Morgan, backup to Christa McAuliffe who died on the ill-fated Challenger mission, was also in a NASA chase plane that was following the Columbia when it broke up seventeen years later. She flew into space on Endeavour in 2007, fulfilling the Teacher in Space mission.