› added 1 year ago

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TIL that Lewis and Clark used a rapid fire .46 caliber air rifle to discourage native tribes from attacking them during their excursion.

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QjPk TIL that Italian doctor Carlo Urbani was largely responsible for the eradication of the SARS disease in China. When advised to stop exposing himself to patients, he replied, “If I can’t work in such situations, what am I here for? Answering e-mails, going to cocktail parties and pushing paper?”
KorB TIL some scientists are working towards reviving lost animal species through a combination of cloning and genetic splicing known as “de-extinction.” If successful, we could reintroduce species such as passenger pigeons and wooly mammoths.
9YQkp TIL the Manhattan Project scientists originally wanted to bomb Kyoto, but Secretary of War Henry Stimson successfully convinced the president that it would be needless culture vandalism, as he had toured the city on his honeymoon and knew it was not a military target.
788Ox TIL that an FBI informant secretly wore a wire to breakfast with a city official suspected of bribery, and met the suspect at the WTC Marriott. In the middle of getting a confession, the informant ends up making what is believed to be the only uninterrupted audio recording of the Sept. 11 attack.
KO65Q TIL of a woman who is literally fearless due to a rare genetic condition known as Urbach-Wiethe disease that hardened her amygdala - part of the brain responsible for fear response. Researchers exposed her to potentially terrifying experiences and none of them scared her.