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TIL over half of all the world's cobalt comes from the Congo, much of it mined by children and slaves, and is a crucial ingredient in all lithium-ion batteries, especially electric car batteries and clean energy storage, and is often classified as a conflict mineral.

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DMlP TIL that man by the name of John Leal put chlorine into a city’s water supply unbeknownst to anyone else which eventually landed him in court. His work would go on to cut the infant mortality rate in half and dropped the rate of death for typhoid nearly to zero.
d8waj TIL that bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) kill so many bacteria that their corpses release 1 BILLION TONS of carbon every DAY, which is a major source of food for bottom-dwelling ocean creatures.
rRaM0 TIL Honey is the only food that never expires. The same honey that was buried with the pharaohs in Egypt is still considered ‘edible’ by scientists.
BrjVe TIL For the movie Star Wars, the sound designer for the Stormtrooper's blasters came up with the sound of the blaster during a family backpacking trip. He hit the guy-wire of an AM radio transmitter tower with a hammer and recorded the sound with a microphone close to the impact.
1aKZ4 TIL that a photosensitive drum, charged by a corona wire, inside a photocopier machine, carries an electrical shadow of the letters to be copied towards the toner, where the toner particles stick to the shadow and then transfered to white blank paper.