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TIL: The Wooly Bear Caterpillar lives for 14 years, freezes during winter and survives by producing natural anti-freeze in their bodies

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VMVKZ TIL CBS only renewed "Rules Of Engagement" for a 7th season, to make it hit exactly 100 episodes. Sony makes final season deals, and has done so with "Community" at NBC at 97 episodes and "Til Death", at Fox at 81 episodes. Sony sitcoms almost always get to syndication before a cancellation.
Dl0P TIL that an MIT-educated biologist, Katharine McCormick, inherited a substantial family fortune and funded the development of the first birth control pill in the 1950s
OoLNa TIL in the 1930s a DuPont chemist found that crystals of a substance called PTC (phenylthiocarbamide) tasted very bitter to some but were tasteless to others (about 75% taste bitterness). Researchers found three variants in a gene called TAS2R38. Two copies of this variant make you non-taster.
MeMKA TIL researchers in Japan came up with a fire alarm that emits the pungent odour of wasabi to alert people with hearing impairments of a fire. They tested this on 14 subjects, and 13 of them, including 4 deaf subjects, woke up within 2 minutes. It turned out that the 14th subject had a blocked nose.
6EPgW TIL Beyoncé’s hit “If I were a boy” it’s not original and was released as a single without the author’s permission. The “terms” that Beyonce had come to with were to allow to do a duet together if BC Jean the author of the song were to get her own record deal. That has not happened yet for Jean.