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Weekend


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April 26, 2002

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Put a mouse in an airtight chamber and soon it dies. Put in a plant and--not quite as fast--it dies too. But what if both are enclosed together?

    A. This 1772 experiment by English amateur chemist Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen, proved that plants need to breathe as they grow, says Guy Murchie in "The Seven Mysteries of Life."


     
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