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 Wii Balance Board reads metal bending too slightly to see.
The Wii Balance Board reads metal bending too slightly to see. Its sensors use strain gauges: electrical resistance changes as their metal stretches under…
Discover more
Oxytocin's reputation as a 'love hormone' misses a complication: stronger attachment to your own group is not the same as kindness to everyone.
Oxytocin's reputation as a 'love hormone' misses a complication: stronger attachment to your own group is not the same as kindness to everyone. Some…
Discover more
Belladonna's beauty history is also a history of pupil-dilating drugs.
Belladonna's beauty history is also a history of pupil-dilating drugs. Historical accounts connect the plant with attempts to make eyes look larger by…
Discover more
A hostel sells you a bed where a hotel sells you a room.
A hostel sells you a bed where a hotel sells you a room. Shared dorms divide the cost of the same space among several travelers. That makes a central location…
Discover more
Iomega Zip drives in the late nineties became infamous for a catastrophic hardware failure known as the "click of death," where the drive would repeatedly emit a terrifying…
Iomega Zip drives in the late nineties became infamous for a catastrophic hardware failure known as the "click of death," where the drive would repeatedly…
Discover more
Nome's lifesaving serum traveled by train before the dog sleds.
Nome's lifesaving serum traveled by train before the dog sleds. In 1925, antitoxin for the town's diphtheria outbreak reached Nenana by rail, then continued…
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.
Slapping a white lab coat on a complete stranger and giving them a clipboard is all it takes to convince most people to inflict lethal electrical shocks on their peers.
Slapping a white lab coat on a complete stranger and giving them a clipboard is all it takes to convince most people to inflict lethal electrical shocks on…
Discover more
Breaking down alcohol briefly creates another toxic chemical.
Breaking down alcohol briefly creates another toxic chemical. Liver enzymes convert alcohol into acetaldehyde, then other enzymes convert that into acetate.…
Discover more
Falcon 9 flies with Linux under the hood.
Falcon 9 flies with Linux under the hood. SpaceX engineers have described flight computers running Linux with custom flight software and redundant processors.…
Discover more
Harry Potter film producers originally tried to use real floating candles suspended by hundreds of wires for the Great Hall scenes in the first movie, but the heat from the…
Harry Potter film producers originally tried to use real floating candles suspended by hundreds of wires for the Great Hall scenes in the first movie, but the…
Discover more
A familiar cow can make separation less stressful.
A familiar cow can make separation less stressful. Researchers have measured behavior, heart activity and stress hormones when cattle are isolated and…
Discover more
Hugh Jackman is six feet two inches tall, which made him nearly a full foot taller than the comic book version of Wolverine, a character famous for being a short, angry Canadian standing at five feet three inches.
Hugh Jackman is six feet two inches tall, which made him nearly a full foot taller than the comic book version of Wolverine, a character famous for being a…
Discover more
Sean Bean has died on screen so many times in his acting career that a dedicated online campaign called Don't Kill Sean Bean was launched in 2014 to demand he survive at least one movie.
Sean Bean has died on screen so many times in his acting career that a dedicated online campaign called Don't Kill Sean Bean was launched in 2014 to demand he…
Discover more
Sydney's famous white sails are not quite white.
Sydney's famous white sails are not quite white. The Opera House's tiled roof uses subtly different finishes and pale tones, with translucent glaze allowing…
Discover more
South Park's creators wore dresses to the Oscars—and later said they took LSD.
South Park's creators wore dresses to the Oscars—and later said they took LSD. Trey Parker and Matt Stone attended the 2000 ceremony in outfits echoing famous…
Discover more
Polaroid's inspiration was a child's very reasonable question.
Polaroid's inspiration was a child's very reasonable question. In 1943, Edwin Land's three-year-old daughter asked why she couldn't see the photograph he had…
Discover more
Google legitimately uses a rented herd of around two hundred goats to mow the massive lawns at their global corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Google legitimately uses a rented herd of around two hundred goats to mow the massive lawns at their global corporate headquarters in Mountain View,…
Discover more
Canada officially possesses the longest continuous highway in the entire world, stretching nearly five thousand miles from the jagged cliffs of Newfoundland all the way to the lush shores of British Columbia.
Canada officially possesses the longest continuous highway in the entire world, stretching nearly five thousand miles from the jagged cliffs of Newfoundland…
Discover more
Military officials in the United States imported over seventy camels from the Mediterranean and Middle East right before the Civil War to serve as elite pack animals for the army in the harsh southwestern deserts.
Military officials in the United States imported over seventy camels from the Mediterranean and Middle East right before the Civil War to serve as elite pack…
Discover more
Bill Gates entered Doom to sell Windows as a gaming machine.
Bill Gates entered Doom to sell Windows as a gaming machine. In a 1995 promotional video, Gates appeared inside the game's world with a shotgun. The…
Discover more
First publicly traded company in recorded history was the Dutch East India Company, which officially established the Amsterdam stock exchange in sixteen oh two to crowdfund their incredibly risky global spice voyages.
First publicly traded company in recorded history was the Dutch East India Company, which officially established the Amsterdam stock exchange in sixteen oh…
Discover more
Captivity can make kindness from a captor feel enormous.
Captivity can make kindness from a captor feel enormous. Accounts grouped under the disputed label Stockholm syndrome describe some hostages forming positive…
Discover more
Norway turned oil revenue into a fund for life after oil.
Norway turned oil revenue into a fund for life after oil. Petroleum revenue feeds a state investment fund that owns assets around the world. Its fiscal…
Discover more
Space Jam's old website became part of the nostalgia.
Space Jam's old website became part of the nostalgia. When Warner Bros. promoted the 2021 sequel, the original film's 1996 site remained accessible at a…
Discover more