The world is more interesting than you think.
Unexpected facts, big ideas, and little discoveries. Find something that sparks your curiosity today.
A little more wonder
The first aerial Channel crossing ran short of lift.
The first aerial Channel crossing ran short of lift. In 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed from England to France in a hydrogen balloon. As…
Discover more
A tiny Rome museum collects objects said to bear marks from purgatory.
A tiny Rome museum collects objects said to bear marks from purgatory. The display in the Church of the Sacred Heart of Suffrage includes books and clothing…
Discover more
Ancient Celtic Druids were the intellectual elite of their society, serving as judges, doctors, and mystical advisors, but they absolutely refused to write anything down because they thought it weakened the memory.
Ancient Celtic Druids were the intellectual elite of their society, serving as judges, doctors, and mystical advisors, but they absolutely refused to write…
Discover more
Adult adoption can keep a Japanese family business in the family.
Adult adoption can keep a Japanese family business in the family. A family may adopt a capable adult successor, sometimes alongside marriage to a daughter, to…
Discover more
Johnny Carson's shortage joke helped fuel a run on toilet paper in 1973.
Johnny Carson's shortage joke helped fuel a run on toilet paper in 1973. It amplified existing reports of supply concerns, and shoppers responded by buying…
Discover more
Greenland's inviting name was part of Erik the Red's pitch.
Greenland's inviting name was part of Erik the Red's pitch. According to the sagas, Erik chose a favorable name to encourage settlement. Norse settlers did…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
The zombie-ant fungus can control behavior without filling the brain.
The zombie-ant fungus can control behavior without filling the brain. Researchers examining infected ants found fungal networks throughout the body and around…
Discover more
James Cameron turned the title Aliens into Alien$.
James Cameron turned the title Aliens into Alien$. Cameron recalled writing the plural title, then drawing strokes through its S to make a dollar sign. It was…
Discover more
Early home computer systems in the 1980s actively utilized standard analog audio cassette tapes to store and load video games, turning the simple act of booting up a program into an agonizing test of human patience.
Early home computer systems in the 1980s actively utilized standard analog audio cassette tapes to store and load video games, turning the simple act of…
Discover more
The Philippines made a banknote too large for an ordinary wallet.
The Philippines made a banknote too large for an ordinary wallet. Its 100,000-piso commemorative note marked the independence centennial in 1998 and earned a…
Discover more
Cabin pressure helps hold a passenger door shut at cruising altitude.
Cabin pressure helps hold a passenger door shut at cruising altitude. A pressurized aircraft keeps denser air inside than outside, producing a large force…
Discover more
Matthew McConaughey's bizarre, rhythmic chest-thumping and humming routine in The Wolf of Wall Street was actually just an acting warm-up exercise he used to relax his vocal cords before filming.
Matthew McConaughey's bizarre, rhythmic chest-thumping and humming routine in The Wolf of Wall Street was actually just an acting warm-up exercise he used to…
Discover more
The Konami Code began as a shortcut for testing a difficult game.
The Konami Code began as a shortcut for testing a difficult game. While working on the NES version of Gradius, Kazuhisa Hashimoto added a sequence that…
Discover more
A simple economic model explains why rivals bunch together.
A simple economic model explains why rivals bunch together. Imagine customers spread along a road who prefer the closest seller. Moving toward the middle can…
Discover more
Roosevelt gave his speech after being shot on the way to it.
Roosevelt gave his speech after being shot on the way to it. In Milwaukee in 1912, a bullet passed through his folded speech and spectacle case before…
Discover more
Michelle Rodriguez pushed back against Letty's planned love triangle.
Michelle Rodriguez pushed back against Letty's planned love triangle. She has described objecting to an early Fast and Furious storyline involving Letty and…
Discover more
Scientists stored Shakespeare's sonnets in synthetic DNA.
Scientists stored Shakespeare's sonnets in synthetic DNA. A 2013 experiment encoded digital files into DNA sequences, including text, an image and audio, then…
Discover more
An Austrian village changed its name to stop being a tourist joke.
An Austrian village changed its name to stop being a tourist joke. The village of Fucking became Fugging on January 1, 2021, following a council decision in…
Discover more
Lobsters communicate with their rivals and potential romantic partners by aggressively projecting streams of highly concentrated urine directly out of tiny nozzles conveniently located right beneath their bulging eyes.
Lobsters communicate with their rivals and potential romantic partners by aggressively projecting streams of highly concentrated urine directly out of tiny…
Discover more
Caesar reduced debt without simply canceling it.
Caesar reduced debt without simply canceling it. Suetonius describes a settlement using property values from before the civil war and subtracting interest…
Discover more
Batman's composer helped pelt the Penguin with vegetables.
Batman's composer helped pelt the Penguin with vegetables. During Batman Returns, Danny Elfman joined crew members throwing fruit and vegetables at Danny…
Discover more
Asphalt roads completely dominate the modern landscape but are technically just massive rivers of highly refined sludge scraped directly from the bottom of oil barrels.
Asphalt roads completely dominate the modern landscape but are technically just massive rivers of highly refined sludge scraped directly from the bottom of…
Discover more
Paul McCartney agreed to guest star on a classic episode of The Simpsons under the strict, uncompromising condition that the character of Lisa Simpson must remain a practicing…
Paul McCartney agreed to guest star on a classic episode of The Simpsons under the strict, uncompromising condition that the character of Lisa Simpson must…
Discover more
Gig economy platforms loudly claim to offer workers unprecedented flexibility and entrepreneurial freedom, but the actual business model heavily relies on legally classifying…
Gig economy platforms loudly claim to offer workers unprecedented flexibility and entrepreneurial freedom, but the actual business model heavily relies on…
Discover more