› added 9 years ago

406

TIL A German biologist who claimed measles is psychosomatic, offered 100,000 Euros to anyone who proved measles is a virus. A German doctor presented evidence of the virus; the biologist dismissed the evidence, but the local court ordered him to pay up.

Read more bbc.com

via reddit.com

M7Vrm TIL of Alexander Carlisle who was responsible for the lifeboats and watertight doors on The Titanic. He resigned after his recommendations that more lifeboats be fitted to The Titanic was refused.
Jaj1 TIL In 2004 a man started a “project” to find his sister a boyfriend. He secretly spied on her with a variety of James Bond style gadgets and disguises for months, keeps diary of shenanigans, ends up getting caught. [Long read, hilarious]
dDKK8 TIL that the original job of the coroner was to collect the revenues of the English Crown - legal fines, buried treasure, shipwrecks, and the like. This included the seized estates of suicide victims and murderers, and over time the office of coroner evolved into the modern function.
b998a TIL of a woman named Mary Grams, who lost her engagement ring. Sixteen years later, she was pulling carrots in her garden when she found her carrot growing through her ring. This is also the second time a person has found a carrot growing through a lost ring, the first in 2016.
Lk79d TIL Graphene is thinner than a human hair and stronger than steel. Completely clear, and flexible. If there was an easy way to cultivate it, it could change the manufacturing of so many products.