› added 9 years ago

342

TIL a geneticist at Utah State University has created “spider-goats.” He took the gene that encodes dragline silk from an orb-weaver spider and placed it among the DNA that prompts milk production in a goat’s udders. The silk produced is stronger than Kevlar and is suitable for ligament repairs.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

QJKdL TIL That the famous deaf-blind writer Hellen Keller received a gift from a Japanese police officer who gave her an Akita dog named Kamikaze-Go as a present. After the dog's death Japan’s government gifted another Akita, making her the first person to bring the dog breed to the U.S. In 1948
V7Pm TIL that the Romans were defeated in 67BC by King Mithridates of Pontus. They ate the hallucinogenic honey that was left behind as a beguiling gift by the Pontian army and were defeated while tripping balls.
Lald TIL by the age of 13, legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, won the weekly amateur contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was eventually barred from entering.
LMJQ TIL a former bonded child labourer from Pakistan escaped the carpet factory at the age of 10, helped free over 3000 kids from slavery, helped bring down Pakistani carpet exports by $34 million, before being murdered at the age of 13.
ANgmn TIL approximately 3% of the population has experienced psychosis