Weird waste
Serendipity is the accidental discovery of something useful whilst looking for something else. And this is exactly what happened to a 17th century German while experimenting with urine.
Hennig Brandt was an unsuccessful businessman and former soldier from Hamburg who was determined to discover the Philosopher's Stone.
The Philosopher's Stone…
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Weird waste
For humans, locusts are insects of destruction and waste. So why was Volvo interested in them?
Swarming in massive, roaring, ravenous clouds locusts completely destroy farms without bumping into each other. And this is what fascinated the Preventative Safety Team at Volvo.
The Swedish car company decided to see if…
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Weird waste
Up until 1668 and Francesco Redi's rotting meat experiments, sex and birth were universally misunderstood. Chinese Buddhists believed all things came from germs. Ancient Egyptians believed frogs came from mud. Medieval Europeans believed mice came from mouldy, rotten wheat and rats from sewerage.
Birth was due to spontaneous generation or…
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Weird waste
Mauveine is a purple coloured dye. Before it was invented purple materials were very rare.
Roman emperors used to wear togas that had been dyed purple. But more than ten thousand molluscs had to be crushed up to get enough purple dye for just one toga.
Purple cloth was so…
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Weird waste
WARNING: DO NOT EAT INSECTS WITHOUT GETTING RELIABLE SAFETY ADVICE
Countries where people (intentionally) eat insects include Australia, USA, Botswana, Cambodia, Mexico, China, Venezuela and Indonesia. There are many more.
Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio's book Man Eating Bugs describes the nutritional value of scorpions, dragonflies, witchetty grubs, termites, stink…
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Weird waste
Scientific research is separated into two branches. That in which logic and consistency govern and the other which pretends or wants to be that. This second one is politely referred to as pathological science.It is otherwise known as pseudoscience, hocus-pocus or wasted, cargolcult, junk, dishonest, delusional and fraudulent science.
Examples…
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Weird waste