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
Frozen gloves may help protect nerves during chemotherapy
Frozen gloves cool the hands enough to constrict nearby blood vessels. With less blood flowing through the area during chemotherapy, less of some drugs may…
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Copenhagen gives cyclists their own path through junctions
Marked crossings and dedicated cycle tracks help show where bikes will travel through an intersection. Predictable paths let drivers and riders anticipate one…
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How Microsoft SEAL computes on encrypted data
Microsoft SEAL lets a server perform calculations on encrypted data without first decrypting it. The server returns an encrypted result that you can decrypt…
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Why choline matters during pregnancy
Choline helps build and support a developing baby’s brain, including the hippocampus, a region involved in memory. Egg yolks are a rich source, yet many…
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Why The Office camera keeps snapping to faces
Cinematographer Randall Einhorn designed it to mimic an underfunded documentary crew, with abrupt, sometimes late snap-zooms that make the camera feel like…
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Jordan's desert walls hide 8,000-year-old hunting traps
From above, the low walls form kilometer-wide funnels that drove gazelles into deep killing pits—prehistoric traps built more than 8,000 years ago.
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In Power Grid, players bid up terrible power plants
Players must bid against each other to purchase power plants from a fluctuating market. When the market shifts, they may drive up the price of an inefficient…
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Why floating markets hang fruit from bamboo poles
Merchants display their produce on tall bamboo poles, so shoppers can spot what each boat is selling without shouting over the engines. Want a pineapple? Look…
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Where shipwrecks lie hundreds of meters inland
Dense coastal fog and strong currents have wrecked ships along Namibia’s coast. As the desert advances over the shoreline, some rusting wrecks now sit…
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Why a toothache doesn't always need antibiotics
Antibiotics can treat certain spreading bacterial infections, but they don’t remove decay or repair an inflamed tooth. That’s why many toothaches call for…
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When new-mom exhaustion is actually a thyroid problem
Postpartum thyroiditis can first release excess thyroid hormone and later leave too little. Symptoms such as tiredness or mood changes can overlap with the…
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Beat Saber turns choreography into a playable score
A level maps blocks to moments in a song, including the direction your hands must move to cut them. Designers can make the same track feel flowing, awkward,…
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Detroit bankruptcy crushed neighboring town credit
Detroit’s bankruptcy spooked bondholders beyond the city limits. They demanded higher yields from nearby, affluent Michigan municipalities because those towns…
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Boiling vent archaea armor themselves in ether lipids
Near-boiling water would destabilize many cell membranes, but the heat-loving archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus has membranes built with durable ether bonds. Those…
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King Lalibela built churches using a crew of angels
Local tradition says angels took over the night shifts, explaining how the churches were carved at superhuman speed.
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Jack Hills zircons suggest Earth had water 4.4 billion years ago
The clue is in the zircon’s oxygen: different forms of oxygen, called isotopes, occur in a pattern that suggests the source rocks had met liquid water. That…
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Heavy ketamine use can damage your bladder
Ketamine can injure the bladder’s inner lining, causing painful inflammation and ulcers. With heavy use, that damage can become severe enough that doctors may…
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How a backyard movie became a folk-horror hit
The Adams family made a microbudget folk-horror film in their backyard, then reached fans through niche streaming platforms such as Shudder. Those services…
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Roman pollution is frozen in Greenland's ice
Silver smelting in Roman times released lead particles that winds carried across great distances, including to Greenland. As snow piled up, it trapped the…
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Dogo Onsen strictly forbids swimming and wet towels
Bathers must strip naked, scrub themselves before entering, and keep even a modesty towel out of the communal water.
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The churches carved downward into solid rock
Workers removed the volcanic bedrock around each structure instead of stacking bricks to build it. The result was 11 churches carved downward into the earth,…
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Fontainhas colonial tiles shine brightest during monsoons
Monsoon rain washes dust from Fontainhas’s Portuguese colonial facades, making its patterned azulejo tiles and mustard-yellow walls stand out against the gray…
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Why doctors cool some oxygen-deprived newborns
After oxygen deprivation, some newborns face a risk of ongoing brain injury even after oxygen returns. Carefully lowering the baby’s temperature slows the…
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Why parcel lockers appear where you shop
A locker turns a delivery into one stop instead of a doorbell chase. The carrier drops several parcels at a shop or other busy location, and customers collect…
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