› added 4 years ago

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TIL that the Ute Indians discovered mechanoluminescence hundreds of years before modern scientists. Quartz crystals were put in sacks of thin buffalo skin. When shaken, they would produce sparks of light that they used in their religious ceremonies.

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GYWyN TIL a Hungarian chemist during WWII hid his Nobel Prize by dissolving it in acid and leaving it on a shelf due to the Nazi ban on its citizens from accepting the Nobel Prize. After the war, he reconstituted the gold from the acid, returned it to Sweden, and got the medal cast again.
YkrG TIL: Lyndon B. Johnson called his penis “Jumbo”, and would occassionally not zip up and ask a colleague if they had seen anything as big as his penis.
e0Qab TIL about heavy water, which is just water but slightly heavier
wodRo TIL sharks are older than the Rings of Saturn
d8RK9 TIL rice is grown in water to prevent weed growth, rice does not need to be surrounded by water to grow, however, weeds will die surrounded by water.