› added 1 year ago

45

TIL about Ophiocordyceps unilateralis or “Zombie Fungus” which takes control of an ant’s nervous system, causing it to climb to the top of a leaf or stem where it bites onto the surface and dies. The fungus then sprouts from the dead ant’s head and releases spores that infect other ants.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

vWm8 TIL the rotary phone was invented by an undertaker. The operator in his hometown was married to his competition, so the rotary dial was a way to bypass the human operator.
wLWlW TIL about the Byford Dolphin, an oil rig where in 1983 a diving bell carrying four men accidentally depressurized. It remains the only time in history where a human being was torn apart from rapid decompression.
1aYdr TIL that Johnny Leech and his family, gardeners and descendants of the African diaspora, lived in former servant quarters in South Carolina at Magnolia Plantation up until 1999.
BYaL TIL that due to an agreement between the National Archives and Caroline Kennedy, the jacket which Jackie Kennedy wore on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated can not be displayed in public until the year 2103.
QJLR6 TIL there is a condition called chimerism(named after the mythical chimera) where people are born with two set of DNA because they absorbed their twin while still in the uterus.