› added 8 years ago

185

TIL sunflowers can “remove up to 95% of uranium of contaminated water in 24 hours”. And “experiments in Chernobyl have demonstrated that they can concentrate on 55 kg of plant dry weight all the cesium and strontium radioactivity from an area of 75 m2”.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

b96YZ The rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongolian empire was responsible for the annihilation of an estimated 40 million people, but there were clearly more than a few conquests off the battlefield as well. A 2003 study suggests that 1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Studies of Y-chromosome data found that almost 8 percent of men living in the former Mongolian empire carry nearly identical Y chromosomes. Researchers believe this is attributed to a unique set of social selection circumstances put into play by the spread of the Mongolian empire. In this week’s "Today I Learned," research scientist Albert Lin elaborates on Genghis Khan as a romantic.
GWrj TIL That Reinhold Messner climbed Mount Everest, without oxygen. Climbed Nanga Parbat 3 times, the first time he lost his brother and 7 toes in the process. Then climbed it again to become the first person to solo climb it. And climbed it again to retrieve his brother remains.
nLRY TIL: Layne Staley of Alice in Chains weighed only 86 pounds (36 kg) when he died from a drug overdose.
9pLm TIL Samuel Morse gave the rights of the telegraph to Texas before it was a state. They ignored him so 22 years later he gave it to the US Government.
Xgp6 TIL When asked if Shia LaBouf would take over Harrison’s fedora in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Harrison responded “Shia can get his own hat. I earned that hat.”