🎩 Spuds, Wings & Horns of Glory

This edition has it all: NASA-approved starch, insects with superhero vision, and ancient buffalo highways that doubled as Google Maps for Native Americans. If you like your trivia weird, wondrous, and unexpectedly useful at bar trivia night—this one’s for you.

Let’s dig in (potatoes first, obviously).

🥔 The First Vegetable in Space Was a Potato

• Back in the day NASA sent something legendary into orbit: a potato. In the 1990s, NASA teamed up with the University of Wisconsin to grow spuds aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Why? Because potatoes are calorie-dense, grow quickly, and can survive Martian soil with a little genetic tweaking.

  So yeah, The Martian was basically a potato biopic.

  🔹 Punchline: One small fry for man, one giant leap for carb-kind.

🦋 Butterflies Can See Colors We Can’t Even Imagine

• Butterflies aren’t just fluttery eye candy—they’re visual powerhouses. While humans have three color receptors (red, green, blue), some butterflies have five or more, allowing them to see ultraviolet light and colors that are literally invisible to us. It’s like they’re flying around in a constant Lisa Frank fever dream.

  Also: some species use this UV vision to spot secret wing patterns during mating. Nature’s got game.

  🔹 Punchline: Butterflies don’t just see the rainbow—they see the bonus DLC.

🐃 Ancient Buffalo Trails Shaped America’s Road System

• Long before Google Maps or Waze rerouted you into gridlock, millions of buffalo were casually creating North America’s original road network. These massive herds followed the same migratory routes for centuries, carving out paths so deep and reliable that Indigenous peoples, settlers, and eventually engineers used them to build actual highways.

  Some modern roads still follow buffalo paths—including parts of the Natchez Trace and the Great Buffalo Trace in Kentucky.

  🔹 Punchline: Turns out, the OG civil engineers were just really heavy and very consistent.

From potato pioneers and butterfly rave goggles to trailblazing bison, this week proves that visionaries come in all forms—tuber, insect, or horned tank.

Stay curious (and hug a carb-loving butterfly if you see one),

— Max Whitt🎩🥔🦋🐃

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