› added 11 years ago

171

TIL that English scientists in 2008 created a robot that was controlled by only rat brain cells. This robot, without any programming, effectively navigates rooms and depending on what rat brain cells they use, the robot will behave differently.

Read more wired.com

via reddit.com

BoPb TIL in 1911, eleven and seven year old brothers rode on horseback from NYC to San Francisco in 62 days
v1on4 TIL the reason Fear Factor was cancelled was because they had a challenge where the contestants drank donkey semen. It wasn’t even the final test to win the grand prize.
Z8ARv TIL In 1965, a patent was filed for a "birthing apparatus" which would spin pregnant women around at as much as 7G until their baby was flung out from the centrifugal force.
5Ygnp TIL on July 7, 2017 a flight landing in San Francisco descended to an altitude of 25m and as close as 9m laterally to four planes waiting below before aborting. 1,000 passengers were at imminent risk and with only seconds to spare, narrowly avoided "the greatest aviation disaster in history"
1agjV TIL When 5 experts were given fingerprints that, unbeknownst to them, they had deemed a “match” earlier in their career, and told that these were from a suspect of the Madrid train bombings, 4 of the 5 experts now said that they didn't match, suggesting their judgement is affected by the context.