› added 2 months ago

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TIL there’s a form of water where the hydrogen atoms are all Deuterium (D2O). This causes it to be heavier than normal water and gives it different physical and chemical properties

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

4Xvm6 TIL that Physicist Ted Taylor was the first person to light a cigarette using a nuclear bomb. During a bomb test in 1952, he used a parabolic mirror to concentrate the light of the blast enough to heat a cigarette suspended from a tiny wire.
Vbk4 TIL parents filed an ethics complaint against a High School Biology teacher for using the word “vagina” while teaching reproduction.
8eJb TIL that there is a town in Spain where 700 people are descended from 17th century samurai who stayed there after an embassy returned to Japan. They have the surname “Japón”, which was originally “Hasekura de Japón”
rRM8M TIL that there is a bird called bittern that defends itself by mimicking a stick!
69XxX TIL Tonic water was created as an early prophylactic treatment against Malaria (due to the added Quinine) by the British army. They added Gin to improve taste and now we have the G&T.