› added 11 years ago

335

TIL that bubble algae, which can grow up to nearly 2 inches in diameter, is one single cell. It’s one of the largest single-celled organisms.

Read more ocean.si.edu

via reddit.com

YKAx TIL of the corn field bomber. A fighter jet that landed itself on a cornfield after the pilot ejected from it following an unrecoverable spin. His act of ejection changed the center of gravity of the plane allowing it recover. It went back into service after minor repair work.
x6o8w TIL the length of the US rail network is twice that of Europe
xVZXo TIL that 100 million Americans (~30%) are currently hosting a parasite.
v1G1x TIL that the computer scientist, Dennis Ritchie—the creator of the C programming language, and an important Unix contributor—died on 12 October 2011, exactly a week after Steve Jobs. News of the former's death was largely overshadowed by that of the latter's.
1m6r TIL a time capsule was buried in Sir Frederick Banting Square, on the scientist’s 100th birthday, Nov. 14, 1991. Banting was part of a team that received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the isolation of insulin. The time capsule will be opened once a cure for diabetes has been found.