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
How soybeans recruit bacteria to make their fertilizer
Soybeans can’t use the nitrogen gas filling the air directly, so they house Rhizobia bacteria in little root nodules. The microbes turn nitrogen into ammonia…
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Disney made a Haunted Mansion crypt sneeze at the queue
The interactive graveyard added in 2011 lets the haunting begin before the ride. A sea captain sings from inside a water-filled crypt, bubbles rise, and a…
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Saudi-China oil trade raised a question about the dollar
In 2022, reports described Saudi discussions about pricing some oil sales to China in yuan. The attraction was trading without converting every transaction…
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A virus from ancient frozen ground could still infect amoebas
Researchers recovered Pithovirus from Siberian permafrost dated to about 30,000 years old and found it remained infectious to its amoeba hosts. Its large…
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The asteroid crater where Apollo astronauts trained
A 50-meter asteroid blasted out the nearly mile-wide Barringer Crater in seconds. Its jagged, well-preserved terrain made it a training ground for Apollo…
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The strange ecosystem living on ocean plastic
A drifting piece of microplastic can become a tiny floating neighborhood for microbes, called the Plastisphere. Some residents may be Vibrio bacteria, a group…
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Why codeine can affect people so differently
The liver uses an enzyme called CYP2D6 to turn codeine into morphine, which provides much of the drug’s pain-relieving effect. Genetic differences can make…
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The medieval font that rescued texts from bad handwriting
Under Charlemagne, Alcuin of York helped standardize Caroline minuscule, a clear script with spaces between words that made manuscripts easier to read. The…
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Dwarf Fortress cats got drunk on a software mistake
Cats walked through spilled alcohol, then cleaned it off their fur. The simulation treated the ingested coating as far more alcohol than a cat should have…
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India offered banks a dollar deal to help steady the rupee
In 2013, the Reserve Bank opened a special swap window linked to foreign-currency deposits from nonresident Indians. Favorable terms reduced banks'…
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Moon dust could cut through spacesuits
On Earth, wind and water round off sand grains; on the Moon, those smoothing forces are missing, so dust keeps its sharp edges. Static electricity makes the…
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The Among Us task that could expose an impostor
Common tasks are assigned to every crewmate or none, so a player pretending to do one that isn't on the shared list can give themselves away as an impostor.
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Anime crossed borders on homemade VHS tapes
Before streaming, fans translated shows, added English subtitles with video equipment, and copied the results onto VHS. Those tapes circulated through clubs…
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The punishing training behind Sheila Ki Jawani
Farah Khan’s choreography demanded intense pelvic isolation and stamina, making the three-minute number a spectacle in its own right. Its viral popularity…
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Carolingian monks completely fabricated the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals to illegally grant immense power to bishops
Frankish clerics wanted bishops beyond the reach of secular rulers, so they backdated fake papal letters and church laws by centuries. The documents passed as…
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How silicon carbide helped Tesla get more from the same battery
Silicon carbide inverters handle heat and electrical resistance better than standard silicon chips, reducing energy lost before power reaches the motor and…
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Crossing the treacherous Drake Passage to Antarctica requires icebreaker ships equipped with underwater sonar mapping
The Drake Passage is notorious for rough seas where the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern oceans meet. The crossing can take about two days before ships reach…
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Red Dead Redemption 2 turns housebuilding into a rhythm game
During the epilogue, the hammering and measuring sounds in the folk music respond to the player's button presses. That makes building a house feel like…
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Why Ehlers-Danlos can take years to diagnose
Ehlers-Danlos syndromes affect connective tissue, which supports structures throughout the body. So joint instability and digestive problems can show up as…
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When landlords owned their tenants' poop
In Edo, human waste was valuable fertilizer because there were few large livestock to supply manure. Landlords sometimes wrote tenants’ night soil into rental…
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The puppet sex scene that fought the ratings board
In Team America: World Police, Trey Parker and Matt Stone used puppets to parody an absurdly elaborate movie sex scene. The filmmakers repeatedly cut the…
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You can listen to a reef’s health
A healthy reef has a busy soundtrack: animals click, pop, and call. Hydrophones record that underwater mix, and AI can help spot when it changes. A drop in…
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How Minecraft speedrunners build Nether portals from lava
They pour water beside a lava lake to shape the lava into portal blocks, avoiding the time-consuming obsidian mining and pickaxe crafting the game normally…
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When microloans turned into a debt crisis
Some lenders gave vulnerable borrowers several high-interest loans at once, even when they were already struggling. In some cases, piling on loans helped…
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