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
Krakatoa sounded like distant guns from 3,000 miles away.
Krakatoa sounded like distant guns from 3,000 miles away. When the volcano erupted in August 1883, people on Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean heard what…
Discover more
Apple's first computer went on sale in 1976 for the unusually specific and somewhat satanic price of exactly six hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents.
Apple's first computer went on sale in 1976 for the unusually specific and somewhat satanic price of exactly six hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six…
Discover more
Pong began as an engineering exercise.
Pong began as an engineering exercise. Nolan Bushnell gave Al Alcorn a simple electronic table-tennis assignment to learn the hardware. Alcorn built the game…
Discover more
A tractor can tip while its wheels stay put.
A tractor can tip while its wheels stay put. If rear wheels cannot turn but the engine keeps applying torque, the tractor can rotate backward around its rear…
Discover more
Stalin's collapse exposed a system afraid to act without orders.
Stalin's collapse exposed a system afraid to act without orders. After he was found incapacitated at his dacha in 1953, guards and senior officials delayed…
Discover more
A Simpsons salary dispute outlived Maude Flanders.
A Simpsons salary dispute outlived Maude Flanders. Maggie Roswell left the series in 1999 after a pay dispute, and Maude was killed off the following year.…
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 muscles moving your fingers are elsewhere.
The muscles moving your fingers are elsewhere. Tendons carry force from muscles in the hand and forearm to the finger bones, like cables pulling a joint. That…
Discover more
Churchill's working day could extend into the bathroom.
Churchill's working day could extend into the bathroom. Accounts from his staff describe taking dictation while he bathed, turning a private routine into more…
Discover more
Soap gets germs off your hands without needing to kill every one.
Soap gets germs off your hands without needing to kill every one. Soap helps loosen oily dirt and microbes from skin so running water can carry them away.…
Discover more
Martian sunsets glow with a distinct, eerie blue hue due to the fine dust particles permanently suspended in the planet's thin atmosphere.
Martian sunsets glow with a distinct, eerie blue hue due to the fine dust particles permanently suspended in the planet's thin atmosphere. As the Sun drops,…
Discover more
An F1 car's downforce can exceed its own weight.
An F1 car's downforce can exceed its own weight. Aerodynamic surfaces and the floor use moving air to press the tires into the track. That is the basis of the…
Discover more
Some dementia care homes have bus stops where no bus comes.
Some dementia care homes have bus stops where no bus comes. The familiar sign and bench offer a place to wait for residents who feel a need to leave. Staff…
Discover more
Swedish blood donors can get a text when their donation is used.
Swedish blood donors can get a text when their donation is used. The notification connects a brief appointment with an event that happens later, out of the…
Discover more
Walt Disney passionately hated the character of Goofy, frequently complaining to his animation staff that the clumsy anthropomorphic dog was completely devoid of any real comedic substance and was just loud and annoying.
Walt Disney passionately hated the character of Goofy, frequently complaining to his animation staff that the clumsy anthropomorphic dog was completely devoid…
Discover more
Tiny ants meet a very different fall than large animals.
Tiny ants meet a very different fall than large animals. An ant has little mass compared with the area pushing through the air. Drag therefore limits its…
Discover more
Tutankhamun's dagger blade was made from meteoritic iron.
Tutankhamun's dagger blade was made from meteoritic iron. Researchers used X-ray fluorescence to measure the blade without cutting it apart. Its high nickel…
Discover more
Bowhead whales can live for two centuries, and their DNA repair system offers a clue to how.
Bowhead whales can live for two centuries, and their DNA repair system offers a clue to how. Researchers found unusually high levels of CIRBP, a protein that…
Discover more
Rhode Island’s game-studio gamble left a public bill.
Rhode Island’s game-studio gamble left a public bill. A state-backed $75 million bond deal helped finance 38 Studios’ move to Providence. The company released…
Discover more
A moth can retain a learned association from its caterpillar days.
A moth can retain a learned association from its caterpillar days. In a 2008 experiment, caterpillars trained to associate an odor with an unpleasant stimulus…
Discover more
Keratin proteins structurally weave together so tightly that a single strand of healthy human hair can support roughly three ounces of weight, meaning a full head of hair…
Keratin proteins structurally weave together so tightly that a single strand of healthy human hair can support roughly three ounces of weight, meaning a full…
Discover more
Automatic writing became such a massive fad in the early twentieth century that a housewife named Pearl Curran famously wrote several critically acclaimed novels supposedly dictated by a ghost named Patience Worth.
Automatic writing became such a massive fad in the early twentieth century that a housewife named Pearl Curran famously wrote several critically acclaimed…
Discover more
Catherine the Great paid a doctor to give her smallpox protection—and made him a baron.
Catherine the Great paid a doctor to give her smallpox protection—and made him a baron. In 1768, Thomas Dimsdale inoculated the empress and her son Paul. This…
Discover more
General Santa Anna held a massive, lavish state funeral with full military honors for his amputated leg after it was destroyed in battle by French cannon fire.
General Santa Anna held a massive, lavish state funeral with full military honors for his amputated leg after it was destroyed in battle by French cannon…
Discover more
Those drifting specks in your vision are often shadows inside your eye.
Those drifting specks in your vision are often shadows inside your eye. Tiny strands clumping in the vitreous—the gel filling the eye—can cast shadows on the…
Discover more