› added 10 years ago

55

TIL that Elmo, Santa Claus, and Saddam Hussein all have keys to the city of Detroit

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WkN7Y TIL after 13 years of trying to find the structure of a protein, scientists created an online competitive game that asked gamers to try and solve it. The structure was found in 3 weeks.
xVovg TIL about the Hedonic Treadmill - the tendency of a person to remain at a relatively stable level of happiness despite changes in fortune or the achievement of major goals. As a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness.
W7EX4 TIL daily mouthwash use is associated with an increased risk of diabetes/prediabetes.
8aDjP TIL the FBI has a very specific definition for 'serial killer': someone who has intentionally killed at least 3 people, but not all at once. There must be so-called ‘cooling off’ periods between each murder.
GYbb7 TIL nuclear physicist Nicholas Kemmer suggested the atomic symbol "Pu" for plutonium deliberately as a joke because it resembled "P.U." (an expression of disgust at a foul smell), yet no one objected, and it made it onto the periodic table.