› added 9 years ago

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TIL Transmutation (turning one substance into another by chemical reaction, like in alchemy) is real. You can turn lead into gold with enough nuclear chemistry. But it would be a very tiny amount of gold and spent more money to make it than what it’s worth.

Ag0x TIL there is an Ig Nobel Prize for unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. This year’s winners include Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, LITHUANIA, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank.
Oo9aY TIL of the "Giant Panda Kindergarten" in China where 18 cubs celebrated their 1st birthday in 2019. Researchers mistakenly thought pandas liked solitary life & kept each panda in a tiny den; the pandas got depressed & didn't want to mate; this changed when pandas were allowed to hang out together.
Z8Lwv TIL that Philip of Macedon threatened to enslave and destroy the population and city of Sparta if he won the war. The Spartans replied to him with a single word: "If".
wlr8 TIL that Gene Cernan promised his daughter that he’d write her initials on the moon. He did and they will be there for tens of thousands of years
Bg1Ar TIL that in 2004, Reason Magazine sent out 40,000 print magazines to their subscribers with each one of the covers displaying a satellite photo of the subscriber’s house. The feature article was about how databases can be utilized on a mass scale with automation.