Mister Lubbock’s Miscellanea of Essential Facts and Useless Trivia
by Paulo Ferreira
Did you know that the oxygen you breathe today has already passed through the lungs of Napoleon and Genghis Khan? Or that the water you just drank was acquainted with Jesus Christ’s kidneys? Or that astrology is still based on the location of celestial bodies, even though the universe is expanding? Penicillin was discovered by chance, and so was viagra. And post its only exist because of an attempt to not waste glue that turned out to be a failure (and because God is good). Newton thought that inventing calculus was important, but not as much as studying the distinguished science that was alchemy. This might just be why our brain tries so hard to fill in the blanks in our memory with false imagens and facts. Speaking of fake news, can we stop arguing over whether Columbus was Portuguese or Spanish, because the first people to arrive in America were the vikings.