› added 2 months ago

27

TIL chemist Sherwood Rowland won the Nobel Prize for discovering that CFCs damage the ozone, which shields Earth from UV radiation. His work led to the Montreal Protocol, a global treaty to phase out CFCs, helping heal the ozone.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

nWlb TIL that in 1860 when Julia Pastrana, a woman who was very hairy and had ape like facial features, died, her husband mummified her and their dead baby’s remains to further exploit them at “freak shows.” Julia’s corpse was buried just this year and the baby’s corpse was eaten by mice in 1976.
akOL TIL that Phaistos Disc, discovered by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, the disc is made of fired clay and contains mysterious symbols that may represent an unknown form of hieroglyphics.
Z8wRR TIL that when falconers want to breed falcons, they wear special sex hats with pockets to catch falcon semen. Birds reared by humans often sexually imprint on the falconer. The sex hat encourages the falcon to copulate with the falconers head and collects its sperm for artificial insemination.
V0am TIL that some people have been recorded and survived having a blood alcohol content over 1.00%.
5Y7E8 TIL about Spring-Heeled Jack, a mysterious boogeyman that was said to ring residents of Londons’ doorbells dressed as a bear, a ghost or a devil and scratch them with metal claws before leaping away with unnatural agility. Sightings of him stretched from 1837 to 1904.