› added 2 months ago

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TIL tuberculosis reached the Americas before European contact, likely carried by seals and sea lions who acquired it from livestock on African beaches

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69AwW TIL that pythons and boa constructors are the only types of snakes that have legs, although they are really tiny
KYK66 TIL about PCR, which is a technique to make billions of copies of a specific DNA from a very small sample. The mix containing DNA is repeatedly heated and cooled, this breaks the DNA molecule and then duplicates it exponentially. The secret? A bacteria living in hot springs has a special enzyme
p87OZ TIL Dora the Explorer teaches English in all languages, except of course (in English) where she teaches Spanish.
VMRkD TIL: Having standard showtimes for films was not common until 1960. Previously most films would just play on a loop, and people could enter at any time. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho required that people watch from the beginning to the end and made showtimes more standard.
vPYNx TIL that the technology for cleaner, healthier gas stoves has been around for decades. But appliance makers aren’t offering them because they don’t have the signature “blue flame”.