› added 9 years ago

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TIL Lake Michigan gets so clear after winter’s ice melts that you can actually see shipwrecks in the depths from the air.

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

m10pO TIL that, before it was known that birds migrated in the winter, it was a commonly accepted theory that birds dug holes and buried themselves in the ground during the cold months. In fact, Aristotle claimed he had found "swallows and kites [...] in holes in the ground".
X0JJ8 TIL that by suppressing the expression of certain genes specifically for beak development, scientists were able to grow a chicken embryo with a dinosaur-like snout instead of a beak
mWaE TIL that the tendency for small wettable floating objects to attract one another is called the “Cheerios Effect”
kLRg TIL that when watermelons are grilled or baked they lose their granular texture and can even be used as meat substitute, a “watermelon steak”.
kOoaE Recently, a collaboration of marine researchers from eight different countries began a project called GoJelly to create an array of jellyfish-based products, including water filters, fish feed, face cream, fertilizers, and food.