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TIL the smell of freshly cut grass is actually a distress signal. When grass blades are cut, they release green leaf volatiles (GLVs).It alerts the plant to damage so it can mobilize repair. GLVs are also airborne messages warning neighboring plants of danger.

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0w6rA TIL Katrin Himmler, the grandniece of Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, was once asked if she would abstain from having children to "end the Nazi bloodline." Her response was no, explaining that the idea of good or evil being passed through bloodlines is literal Nazi ideology.
8a7W8 TIL of a huge sunken land-mass in the Pacific Ocean, dubbed Zealandia. It was spied from space, and scientists favor it being formally recognized as the 8th continent, of which New Zealand is it's only visible portion.
D1Jgj TIL Sub-replacement fertility that is a fertility rate which, if sustained, leads to each new generation being less populous than the older is around 2.33 as opposed to the intuitive guess of 2 children per woman.
e6Zn TIL that there is a small district of Vilnius, Lithuania that has declared itself an independent republic. It has its own flag, currency, president, cabinet, and an army of 11 men.
b9gyj TIL When a patient is zapped with a defibrillator, their heart stops beating altogether - the two electric paddles attached to the patient's chest essentially 'reset' the heartbeat. Once the heartbeat stops, the heart starts afresh and begins beating normally again.