› added 4 years ago

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TIL that some bacteria can be visible to the naked eye! Thiomargarita namibiensis can grow up to 3/4 of a millimeter (750 μm) due to a cavity that is used to store, and later convert, nitrate.

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Z80Bv TIL: The highest point (The peak of Mount Whitney at 14,494 feet / 4,418 meters) and lowest point (The Badwater Basin area of Death Valley at -282 feet / -86 meters) in the Contiguous United States are both in California, both in the same county in California, and only 88 miles apart.
9pkB TIL most of the laugh tracks you hear on TV were recorded in the 1950s, which means a lot of the people you hear laughing are dead.
8alrK TIL during filming of Gangs of New York, they built what was essentially a full scale complete replica of the Five Points in 1800's New York. According to the DVD commentary, George Lucas visited the set and explained that CGI effects would be much cheaper but Scorsese insisted on authenticity.
PYooV TIL of Diana Trujillo - who despite being a 17 year old immigrant arriving to America with no English skills and only $300 dollars in her pocket - was able to work her way from housekeeper to becoming an aerospace engineer at NASA who helped create the robotic arm for Mars rover Perseverance.
x6jZw TIL an animated Robocop series aired in 1988 for 12 episodes. 13 episodes were ordered but only 12 were made because the budget for the 13th funded the intended pilot for an X-Men animated series called "Pryde of the X-Men" which the 1992 Konami X-Men arcade is based on.