26Edible mushrooms
In 2013, UK scientists discovered 3 new species of mushroom after buying dried porcini mushrooms from a local grocery store and testing them.
27. Out of 46,000 discovered species of spider, only a single spider named Bagheera Kiplingi has been found to be a herbivore.
28. In 2011, a KFC employee discovered a 200 page, type-written manuscript written by Colonel Sanders (b1890-d1980) consisting of recipes, anecdotes, and life lessons.
29. Russia has a vast diamond field containing "trillions of carats", enough to supply global markets for another 3000 years. The field was discovered in the 1970s underneath 35 million year-old asteroid crater in Siberia.
30. Northern Elephant Seals were thought to be extinct until eight were discovered on Guadalupe Island in 1874 by a Smithsonian expedition. They then killed seven for their collections.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Vaseline
Petroleum Jelly was first discovered when a chemist visiting an oil rig noticed that the workers would smear the wax that built upon the drills and rigs on their wounds to heal them faster. He figured out how to refine it and started selling it under the name Vaseline.
32. Alchemist Hennig Brand believed that he could distill gold from human urine. After stockpiling 1,500 gallons of the liquid and boiling it, he discovered phosphorus.
33. In 2013, The Wall Street Journal discovered a cache of files which revealed that the U.S. government lobotomized over 2000 veterans against their will after World War 2. The veterans were lobotomized for reasons such as PTSD, depression, schizophrenia, and occasionally homosexuality.
34. Coelacanths were thought to be extinct since the Cretaceous period, yet they were discovered alive in 1938.
35. A Japanese farmer discovered a gold seal while repairing an irrigation ditch in 1784. The seal turned out to be 95% pure gold and was a gift from the Chinese Emperor to a Japanese envoy from 54 C.E., the earliest recorded date of contact between the two countries.
