› added 6 days ago

TIL that Thalidomide (morning sickness drug that caused birth defects) is a chiral molecule. The drug that was marketed was a 50/50 mixture of left and right-handed molecules. While the left-handed molecule was EFFECTIVE, the right-handed one was highly TOXIC

Read more theconversation.com

via reddit.com

P1xrw TIL that Shrek was initially recorded in Mike Myers Canadian voice. Per his Vanity Fair video, he asked if he could do Shrek in a Scottish accent. They turned him down. They liked what they had already. He asked for one chance. They gave him the opportunity.
QPW9 TIL Elvis Presley was naturally blonde. He dyed his hair black
kJnj4 TIL that in the early days of Fed-Ex, there was one time the company couldn't afford the fuel bill for their planes, so the founder took the company's last $5,000 and went to Las Vegas and won $27,000 playing blackjack, and kept the company afloat.
Xw8P TIL After a miscarriage in 1726, a woman named Mary Toft began placing rabbits inside her vagina claiming that when they exited her she had given birth to a monster. 17 such “monsters” were “born”. The discovery of her fraud ruined the careers of several prominent surgeons who believed her. [NSFW]
r6gW TIL that Pete Best released an album in 1965 called “Best of the Beatles” that contained no Beatles music but fooled so many people into buying it that it was investigated for consumer fraud. The case was dropped because no fraud had been committed, he was Best, of the Beatles.