› added 11 years ago

271

TIL 40% to 50% of the genetic information found in your GI tract does not match anything that’s ever been classified before–not plant, animal, fungus, virus, or bacteria. We have no clue what it is. Biologists call it “biological dark matter.”

Read more ted.com

via reddit.com

womrM TIL that according to a review in the American Journal of Neuroradiology, by the age of 20 37% of people show spinal disc degeneration on imaging. That figure increases to 80% by age 50 and 96% for age 80+.
KOXAQ TIL that the alien in Alien was played by a Nigerian man named Bolaji Badejo. He died of sickle cell anemia in 1992, at the age of 39.
0w5D5 TIL you shouldn’t give children under 6 months old water, as among other reasons, their kidneys cannot filter plain water - leaving them susceptible to water intoxication.
VkWG TIL that a large percentage of native Jamaicans have Irish ancestry due to the large influx of “Irish Slaves” between the 15th and 18th century.
j7nn TIL, according to a report in Britain’s BMJ medical journal, nearly 1 percent of young women in a U.S. study who have become pregnant claim to have done so as virgins.