› added 11 years ago

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TIL that Duke University scientists made rats able to detect infrared light by inserting a neural implant ino their brains

Read more wired.co.uk

via reddit.com

aPVb TIL Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad’s first word upon setting foot on the Moon was “Whoopee!” in order to win a $500 bet with an Italian journalist that NASA didn’t script astronaut declarations.
4Xx6X TIL Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated on June 28th 1914, an event which led to the beginning of the war. Strangely, the Archduke's number plate read: A 111 118, a series that can be read as, Armistice 11 November '18.
jEbQ TIL that a roman poet wrote such an NSFW poem, that it was not publicly translated until the late twentieth century.
xY4k TIL the man who killed President McKinley, often dismissed as a mentally disturbed anarchist, did it in part due to US policies in the Philippines at the time, which though nearly forgotten today, resulted in the deaths of 200k-250k civilians and over 5,000 US troops
VBNQZ Today I learned that 2,300 year old mosaic of shells and coral has been found buried under Rome and it's a rare one because it's actually wall mosaic and pieces are more delicate than those for the floor. The owner was so rich they could afford importing such precious elements.