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When Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer, he called "zero degrees" the lowest temperature he was able to attain with a mixture of ice and salt. For the upper point of his scale, he used 96°, which he measured as normal human body temperature (we know it to be 98.6° today because of more accurate thermometers).
People with high total cholesterol have about two times the risk for heart disease as people with ideal levels.
The Romans did not use numerals to indicate fractions but instead used words to indicate parts of a whole.
Cancer has been around as long as humankind, but only in the second half of the twentieth century did the number of cancer cases explode.
ACTH levels are normally highest in the early morning (between 6 and 8 A.M.) and lowest in the evening (between 6 and 11 P.M.). Therefore, a doctor who suspects abnormal levels looks for low ACTH in the morning and high ACTH in the evening.