Tag Archives: Science
WTF Fun Fact 12743 – Laughter is the Best Medicine
The Baby With the Baboon Heart
On 3 December 1967, South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard made medical history by performing the first successful human heart transplant, transferring the heart of accident victim Denise Darvall into 65-year-old Louis Washkansky. While Washkansky died 18 days later of pneumonia, the pioneering surgery heralded a new era of medicine, giving thousands of people a new… Read More »
That Time a Scientist Stopped a Charging Bullfighting Bull Using Mind Control FOR SCIENCE!!!!
One day in the summer of 1963, Spanish neurologist José Delgado stepped into a bullring outside Córdoba and prepared to perform an audacious experiment. Armed only with an experimental radio transmitter, he prepared to face off with an angry Spanish fighting bull, bred specifically for strength and aggression. Delgado waved a flag to set the… Read More »
WTF Fun Fact 12740 – The Master Switch of Life
WTF Fun Fact 12739 – The Dreams of Men
WTF Fun Fact 12731 – Cute Aggression
WTF Fun Fact 12729 – Astronaut Life Insurance
WTF Fun Fact 12728 – Frederic Tudor’s International Ice Shipment
How a WWII Famine Helped Solve a 2,000 Year Old Major Medical Mystery
In the winter of 1944-45, the people of the Netherlands teetered on the brink of starvation. As the Allied advance through the south stalled in wake the ill-conceived Operation Market Garden, the Dutch Government in Exile ordered a nationwide railway strike in an attempt to cripple the occupying German Army. In retaliation, the Nazis cut… Read More »
Is Photographic Memory Actually a Thing?
One day in April 1929, a Moscow newspaper editor was handing out assignments when he noticed that one of his reporters wasn’t taking any notes. The editor pulled the reporter aside to question him, only for the man, one Solomon Shereshevsky, to reveal that he never took notes because he had a perfect memory. Then,… Read More »