› added 6 years ago

253

TIL Scientists put slime mold onto a model of a map of Tokyo, with food representing urban centers. After a day, it created a network almost identical to Tokyo’s actual rail network. Human designers created that network to be as efficient as possible; slime mold did the same, but without a brain

Read more theatlantic.com

via reddit.com

v4ML TIL that ‘meconium’, the first bowel movement of an infant, can be tested to determine if the mother smoke, drank or engaged in drug use during pregnancy. Meconium testings can be used in the US to determine the eligibility of the parents to keep their newborn child.
wLexo TIL that in 36 BCE, Roman statesman Marcus Varro wrote about germs, describing "minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which...enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases." The germ theory of disease would not be accepted widely for another 1,900 years.
Wg14 TIL not a single black artist had a Billboard No.1 single in 2013 - the first time this has happened in 55 years.
aw6Ao TIL there is a species of butterfly that feeds only on specific plant (Artemisia Vulgaris), which happens to like soil above mass graves. Forensic teams followed blue butterflies to help them uncover the mass grave sites.
VMVXG TIL So-called 'gut strings' for acoustic Spanish guitars were originally made from the small intestines of slaughtered sheep. The production material only changed - to nylon - during World War II, when all available gut was used in the production of surgical thread for wounded soldiers.