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
Mata Amritanandamayi funds a massive medical hospital
Her charitable trust operates a 1,300-bed hospital in India, equipped with scalpels and MRI machines.
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When menus offered no choices
The menu was just a scrap of paper listing the day’s mystery stew—no substitutions or dietary requests.
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Spiritualist mediums routinely employed literal magicians to design their fake ghost cabinets
Some mediums hired stage illusionists to design spirit cabinets, using hidden compartments and trapdoors to make ghosts or “ectoplasm” appear.
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Different bingo cards can still win on the same number
Two players do not need identical cards to finish together: each may be waiting for the same final call in a different pattern. Bingo rules therefore include…
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When scientists mistook coral for plants
Coral’s hard, branching skeleton made reefs look like underwater plants, and early marine experts missed the animals living inside them. Tiny polyps wave and…
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World of Warcraft makes you discover the shortcut before you can use it
In Classic-style travel, visiting a flight master unlocks that destination for later flights. The first trip builds your transport network; subsequent visits…
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Graphical user interfaces were vastly popularized
Graphical interfaces made computers easier to use by putting visible objects on the screen that people could point to. Xerox PARC helped develop windows and…
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Chinese cycle pairs heavenly stems with branches
Ten heavenly stems and 12 earthly branches rotate together; their pairings take 60 years to repeat. It’s a calendar built from two cycles, not one long list.
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Why a baker’s dozen has 13
Medieval English bakers faced fines or a public flogging for bread that weighed too little. Their insurance policy was one extra loaf: give 13 when the order…
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America's nuclear-support system was still using eight-inch floppy disks in 2016
A Government Accountability Office review found the disks in a Defense Department system coordinating nuclear-force operations. The same review found aging…
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When walking in circles filled arenas
In the 19th century, spectators packed indoor arenas to watch athletes walk hundreds of miles in endurance contests. The drama came from seeing who could keep…
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Why kick scooters make every bump worse
Their small, solid wheels and lack of suspension send every bump straight to the rider, so even a twig can make the ride jolt.
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Bladder walls actively prevent fluid from leaking back
The ureters enter the bladder through its wall, where their passage can be compressed as the bladder fills. The pressure helps act like a one-way valve,…
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A toll plaza can create a bottleneck after you pay
Multiple booths let several drivers pay at once, but those lanes often have to merge back into fewer highway lanes. Stopping at the cashier is only one source…
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Farting holds the official scientific name of flatulence
Flatulence is the clinical name for gas leaving the digestive tract through the anus. The gas can come from swallowed air or from microbes making gases as…
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Why solid deodorant passes airport security
Airport carry-on rules target liquids, not solid sticks. Deodorant that stays put in the tube gets through while its sloshier cousins face the tiny-bottle…
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First electric motors used rotating magnetic fields
The rotating magnetic field could turn a metal cylinder without touching it, demonstrating how electrical current could produce motion.
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When video games were packaged like albums
In the 1980s, EA sold floppy disks in flat, square cardboard sleeves modeled on vinyl album covers, with artistic black-and-white photos of the programmers on…
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Microsoft bought a studio famous for Nintendo classics
The $375 million acquisition of Rare in 2002 brought the maker of Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark into Microsoft's gaming business. A team closely associated…
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Risk began as a French game called The Conquest of the World
Albert Lamorisse, who won an Oscar for writing the short film The Red Balloon, designed the original game as La Conquête du Monde (“The Conquest of the…
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Cured meats perfectly align with Capricorn rigidity
Dry-curing keeps meat from spoiling for a long time. In the Capricorn joke, that becomes a metaphor for guarding your joy until the fun is gone.
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The $6 box of bull feces that actually sold
Cards Against Humanity sold boxes of actual bull feces for Black Friday in 2014. About 30,000 buyers paid $6 apiece, making the anti-shopping stunt a shopping…
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Why your fingertip seems to have its own pulse
An injury can make nearby tissue swell and become more sensitive, so each pulse of blood is easier to feel in a fingertip packed with nerve endings. The…
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Recumbent bicycles place the rider in a reclining position
The reclined position can make long rides more comfortable, but it also puts you low to the road, where passing drivers may have a harder time seeing you.
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