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TIL Australian physician Barry Marshall was awarded a Nobel prize for infecting himself with bacterium Helicobacter pylori to show that it caused stomach ulcers, after he was ridiculed and declined funding for his hypothesis that bacteria could survive in acidic conditions

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wx76 TIL the “pencil test” was used during Apartheid in South Africa to decide if a child got to grow up white or “coloured” (biracial). If your hair wasn’t curly enough to hold a pencil, you “passed” as white.
R5VNw TIL Viagra was originally designed for heart problems until trials found that men who took it were getting more erections.
xVQvg TIL: Yoko Ono was not ~just~ the wife of The Beatles' famed musician John Lennon. She's also a longtime "conceptual artist" in her own right, sometimes making art like "Mend Piece," which includes these instructions for the viewer: "TAKE YOUR FAVORITE CUP. BREAK IT IN MANY PIECES WITH A HAMMER."
QJKl6 TIL that women's tears contain chemicals that decrease sexual arousal and lower testosterone levels in men.
9YDgM TIL of Smoky, a Yorkshire terrier who helped save the lives of 250 soldiers in 1944