She paved the way for IVF technology by falling asleep

One procedure has enabled the births of more than 10 million babies around the world, and nearly 3 percent of United States births per year — and it only became available relatively recently. People have had children via in vitro fertilization, or IVF, since 1978, though it took around a decade for the technique to become more widely accessible. Boston-based physician John Rock was the first to test the technique with human eggs. Lab technician Miriam Menkin assisted him by extracting eggs from ovaries removed from hysterectomy patients. She put these eggs in solution, cultured them, and added sperm in a petri dish. Over nearly six years, she attempted to fertilize more than 100 eggs without success. Finally, in February 1944, she saw success after increasing the contact between the sperm and egg from 30 minutes to an hour — an accidental adjustment because she, the mother of an infant, had fallen asleep during the experiment. (via Nautilus)

Some people are literally allergic to the cold and it can kill them if they are unprepared

It’s safe to say that most people don’t love the cold weather. It’s uncomfortable, you need to wear layers, and the bite in the air can physically hurt. But for some people, cold weather could actually kill them. There’s a real medical condition behind that sentence, and it’s called cold urticaria. It’s a rare disorder where exposure to cold temperatures causes the immune system to misfire. Instead of adapting to a temperature drop, the body reacts as if it’s under attack. Skin can erupt into hives. Swelling can spread across the whole body. Blood pressure can drop. In severe cases, the reaction escalates into anaphylaxis. Cold urticaria has been documented for centuries. Today, researchers know the condition affects about six out of every 10,000 people and appears nearly twice as often in women as in men. Symptoms usually begin in early adulthood, but children and older adults can develop the condition too. (via Vice)

Maine's famous Lobster Lady kept working the boats until the age of 103

Virginia Oliver, a feisty, salty-tongued lobster boat skipper who fished off the New England coast wearing earrings, hot-pink lipstick and an occasional scowl for more than 80 years, until she was 103, died on Jan. 21 in Rockport, Maine. She was 105. Her death was confirmed by her sternman, Max Oliver Jr., who was also her son.On the frigid and crustacean-filled waters of Penobscot Bay, Mrs. Oliver was known as the Lobster Lady. She was a folk hero to Mainers — an enduring, if fading, emblem of the state’s hardy, matter-of-fact work ethic. During lobster season — from June to December — Mrs. Oliver would wake up at 2:45 a.m., put on overalls and drive her four-wheel-drive pickup truck to the dock. After loading her boat, the Virginia, with bait and gas, she would head to sea before sunrise, hauling lobster pots until lunchtime. Mrs. Oliver fished for more than 60 years with her husband, Maxwell Oliver Sr., known as Bill. (via the NYT)

Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. I am able to continue writing this newsletter in part because of your financial help and support, which you can do either through my Patreon or by upgrading your subscription to a monthly contribution. I enjoy gathering all of these links and sharing them with you, but it does take time, and your support makes it possible for me to do that. I also write a weekly newsletter of technology analysis called The Torment Nexus.

Someone tried to smuggle a 2.8-ton chunk of meteorite as a lawn ornament

Russian investigators have prevented a giant meteorite fragment being smuggled to Britain disguised as a garden ornament, the Federal Customs Service reported Thursday. The huge specimen weighing about 2.8 tons is believed to have come from the Aletai meteorite, one of the largest known iron meteorites on Earth, it said. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation. "The strategically important cargo was discovered during checks on a sea container at the port of Saint Petersburg," the customs service said in a statement. Scientists have expressed ethical concerns about the sale of meteorites, which are often coveted for research purposes and hold important clues about the make-up of the early solar system. The Aletai meteorite was discovered in western China in 1898 and is thought to be at least 4.5 billion years old. It is unclear when the meteorite slammed into the Earth's surface. (via CBS News)

A 5,300-year-old metal drill pushes back the history of technology in Egypt

An international team of researchers has established that a small and long-forgotten copper alloy tool, excavated a century ago in a necropolis of Upper Egypt, is the oldest identified metal rotary drill in the Nile country. The object, dating to the Predynastic period, in the fourth millennium before our era, shows that Egyptian artisans mastered a sophisticated mechanical drilling technique much earlier than previously thought, pushing back by more than two millennia the accepted date for the established use of this fundamental technology. The study was published in the journal Egypt and the Levant. The scientists reexamined the artifact, housed in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, which was unearthed in the Badari cemetery. The burial, belonging to an adult man, contained this object measuring just 63 millimeters in length and weighing close to 1.5 grams. (via La Brujula Verde)

This guy is my kind of mime

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other places that I rely on as "serendipity engines," such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis's Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton's The Browser, Clive Thompson's Linkfest and Why Is This Interesting by Noah Brier and Colin Nagy. If you come across something you think should be included here, feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com