Only 12,000 years ago there was a species closely related to modern humans called Homo floresiensis that had been living on an Indonesian Island. They used fire and rather advanced tools, yet were only about 3 feet tall and weighed around 25kg.
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In 1999, Harvard physicist Lene Hau was able to slow down light to 17 meters per second and in 2001, was able to stop light completely.
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A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!
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Neanderthal man had a brain capacity 100cc larger than modern man's.
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The average temperature at 40,000 feet above sea level is -60 F.
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Scientists aren't sure what color dinosaurs were.
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Marie Curie, the Nobel prize winning scientist who discovered radium, died of radiation poisoning.
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In the 1950s, the US government placed beer next to an atomic bomb blast to determine if it was still drinkable. The result: in the event of a nuclear war, beer is safe to drink!
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