› added 6 months ago

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TIL that in the 1970s, researchers discovered a tribe in Papua New Guinea that was immune to a deadly disease called Kuru.

Read more ninds.nih.gov

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PMKe TIL The Google effect is the tendency to forget information that can be easily found using internet search engines such as Google, instead of remembering it.
4XxMN TIL that relocating sea otters to SF bay could greatly increase their population and aid in conservation efforts by keeping them safer from shark bites...but getting them there means they have to swim the "shark gauntlet" near the Golden Gate.
ObAY TIL the Caribbean Taino natives believed in a deity called Guabancex, the goddess of chaos and destruction, who could call upon a storm called the “juracán”. This is where the Spanish word “huracán” comes from, which later became the English word “hurricane”.
9YRXD TIL Isaac Asimov was an on-again, off- again member of MENSA. He drifted in and out of active membership due to some unpleasant members who were "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs,"
b6JKN TIL a "misconception in much of psychology is that [...] 'newer' brain structures were added over existing 'older' brain structures [e.g. reptilian]"; rather, "all vertebrate behavior" is based on "decision-making circuits", and "the prefrontal cortex [...] is not a uniquely human structure"