› added 4 years ago

189

TIL that the Cold War era satellite espionage program, known as Corona, inadvertently tracked the decline of biodiversity in regions that lack historical records.

Read more sciencemag.org

via reddit.com

gMxN8 TIL that caffeine in coffee beans is thought to serve as a toxic substance protecting the seeds of the plant, a form of plant defense, against herbivores. Its production has evolved independently to caffeine found in cacao and tea.
W7oWX TIL Astronomers have observed sunspots, or starspots, on other stars. A study tracked 56 starspots from a sample of more than 5,000 Sun-like stars
m1O9Y TIL about the doorway effect a known psychological event where a person's short-term memory declines when passing through a doorway moving from one location to another when it would not if they had remained in the same place.
R7KLw TIL jewish scholars openly admit that 40% of jewish households owned slaves in the US.
yQ8xp TIL there’s a 2 mile underground pipeline in Bruges to transfer beer from brewery to bottling plant.