› added 4 years ago

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TIL that every human being has a unique microbial identity. A microbial "trace" is left of us as we move about that is as unique a fingerprint and could one day be used in criminal forensics and bio-metric security.

Read more ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

via reddit.com

Y77rW TIL the first supersonic airliner was not the Concorde or Tu-144, but a DC-8. During a test flight in 1961 it achieved supersonic speed for 16 seconds while in a dive. Accompanying the airliner in a chase plane was Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier.
NKKQ TIL Al Lewis (Grandpa on The Munsters) used to have Charles Manson babysit his kids.
WkbwY TIL that members of federally recognized Native American tribes can collect and own naturally fallen eagle feathers.
56dp TIL that the average person takes about 7 minutes to fall asleep .
Lv7Z TIL that in 1746, Jean-Antoine Nollet conducted an experiment in which 200 monks formed a circle (1.6 km in circumference) and were linked by iron wire. He then had electricity pass through them which shocked all the monks simultaneously. He concluded that the speed of electricity was very high.