› added 5 years ago

418

TIL The lightest touch from a human, animal, insect, or even plants touching, triggers a huge gene response in plants. Within 30 mins of being touched, 10% of the plant's genome is altered. This is a huge expenditure of energy. If the touching is repeated, then plant growth is reduced by up to 30%

Read more phys.org

via reddit.com

rRDMW TIL that Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine in the form of an extract of the coca leaf, which inspired the “Coca” part of the beverage’s name. At the time, cocaine was a legal and not thought to be harmful. In 1929 scientists were able to remove all psychoactive elements from the recipe.
PYQPw TIL A man in Florida drowned on his birthday, after crashing his car into a fire hydrant. He had managed to get out of his car, but was then sucked into a sinkhole likely created by the water pressure resulting from the fire hydrant's destruction.
rRPLx TIL the man who discovered the placebo effect, Henry K. Beecher, was a medic in WW2. After running out of morphine doses for his soldiers, he gave them a saline solution which did not include an active drug. To his surprise, most patients reported pain relief, despite having severe war injuries.
1NeP TIL in 1968, having deemed 11 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons too politically incorrect to air, United Artists withheld them from syndication. The “Censored 11” haven’t aired on TV since, but clips have crept online, giving today’s audiences a window into cringeworthy racist stereotypes.
QJxlL TIL about John Gurdon, who was ranked last out of 250 boys in his year group in Biology and in a progress report, his teacher said that pursuing Biology for him would be a "waste of time, for him and those who have to teach him". In 2012, John Gurdon won the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine