› added 2 months ago

9

TIL that rats laugh when tickled, but the sound is at a frequency humans can’t hear without special equipment. Scientists discovered this in the late ‘90s.

Read more science.org

via reddit.com

GYxPN TIL Ducklings can engage in cannibalistic behaviours due to boredom, overcrowding, lack of ventilation, and poor nutrition.
Z8evY TIL that H1N1, the influenza strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, survived another 40+ years as a seasonal flu bug. It was finally “extinguished” by another flu virus, H2N2, in the 1957 flu pandemic. Even so, a “new” H1N1 emerged 50 years later to cause the 2009 “swine flu” pandemic.
5YAB TIL two thirds of teenagers in the UK are atheists
p8vme TIL that when someone set Cleverbot up talking to itself, it (they?) almost immediately started talking about God
v1ngK TIL that Adelicia Acklen saved her fortune because she was friends with a Confederate general and friendly with a Union admiral. The general agreed not to burn her Louisiana cotton and the admiral allowed her to ship it to New Orleans. She sold it to the Rothchilds of London for $960,000.