› added 4 years ago

127

TIL that bees and many other pollinating creatures can detect nectar in flowers by seeing UV colors that aren't visible to the human eye. Many flowers have UV patterns, or "landing zones", which bees use to direct them to the nectar in the flower.

Read more news.ncsu.edu

via reddit.com

4kMrX TIL: Combination weapons such as a Gun-Axe, Mace-Pistol, or Pistol-Falchion were real and date back hundreds of years. In the 1500s -1800s since guns only fired one shot, they attached them to various weapons such as the German Axe-Pistol. In some cases they attached a gun to a shield.
4EGg TIL AT&T has a center in San Francisco (dubbed “Room 641A”) whose sole purpose is to monitor domestic and global internet traffic. There are potentially ten to twenty of these across the country.
v1KXr TIL 1/3 of all internet traffic from the U.S. to Asia passes through a single skyscraper in Downtown Los Angeles, where 260 ISPs lease space for interconnected networks.
BroNb TIL Nigerian-Americans are the most educated ethnic group in the United States. According to the Migrations Policy Institute, 29% of Nigerian-Americans have graduate degrees (compared to 11% of the overall American population)
W797N TIL that for 1308 years (128 CE - 1436) the dome of the Pantheon has been the largest dome in the world. The new record was then held by the dome of Florence Cathedral for 435 years (1436 - 1871). They both still hold the record for their "category" (unreinforced solid concrete and brick and mortar)