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 prison where tourists pay to be mistreated
At Latvia's Karosta Prison, tourists can sign a waiver for an overnight stay in which actors in KGB uniforms bark orders, make them exercise at night, and put…
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The dam that survived a 250-meter wave
A landslide into the reservoir sent a wave over the Vajont Dam in 1963, devastating the town of Longarone below. The dam itself remained intact.
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A child's nightmares inspired the horror film House
Obayashi built the film around fears suggested by his preteen daughter, including a murderous piano, a flying severed head, and an evil housecat.
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The bridge that lets you walk through a moat
The Moses Bridge is a sunken wooden passage built at the waterline of a 17th-century moat. From a distance, visitors seem to walk straight through the water.
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An earthquake opened Los Angeles’ hidden Nazi compound
The 1987 Whittier earthquake damaged the entrances to Murphy Ranch, a compound built in the 1930s by wealthy Nazi sympathizers. Its crumbling ruins are now a…
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The earthquake that shook the Enlightenment
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake killed tens of thousands, making it hard to accept that everything happened for the best. Voltaire turned that shock into…
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Britain made joint-stock ventures harder to launch in 1720
The Bubble Act restricted companies operating as joint-stock ventures without legal authorization. Passed during the South Sea boom, it put a government…
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How sewage and drought helped fuel an encephalitis outbreak
With severe drought and open sewage, infected Culex mosquitoes found breeding grounds in St. Louis. Their bites spread the virus among residents; once it…
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Liverpool put electric trains above its flammable docks
The Overhead Railway opened in 1893, carrying passengers above a busy waterfront. Electricity avoided the smoke and sparks of steam locomotives among…
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Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot was made from a melting reactor and building
The Elephant’s Foot isn’t a chunk of fuel that simply melted in place. Reactor fuel fused with concrete, sand, steel, and other materials, flowed like lava,…
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The woman who worked from home with a 1965 computer
In 1965, Mary Allen Wilkes worked on the LINC from her parents' home in Baltimore after MIT shipped the refrigerator-size computer there at her request.
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Pompeii's surgeons had surprisingly advanced tools
A screw-operated vaginal speculum, bone forceps, and scalpels were all recovered from Pompeii. The speculum could be expanded with a screw to hold tissue…
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Disney's artists formed a band that escaped the studio
Ward Kimball led the Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland group drawn from studio personnel. They made records, appeared on television, and were even…
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The Iron Maiden's reputation is newer than its medieval image
The famous spike-lined cabinet became prominent through later stories and displays, rather than a secure medieval record of executions. The Nuremberg example…
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British Somaliland abandoned a totally useless railway
A railway earns its keep by carrying people or freight between useful places. When the track fails to connect enough traffic to pay for its upkeep, the rails…
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A Catholic bishop helped a Nazi fugitive obtain travel papers
Franz Stangl, a former commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka, received help from Bishop Alois Hudal in Rome. Stangl escaped to Syria in 1948 and later moved to…
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Negligent rail mining infrastructure buried Aberfan
Mining waste piled above Aberfan became deadly when rain saturated the tip and turned its contents into a sliding mass. The slurry rushed into the village and…
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How Ottoman tax breaks weakened local businesses
A European merchant in the Ottoman Empire could get out of local taxes and answer to a European court. Local merchants still paid high taxes, leaving foreign…
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The boat that skimmed like a plane
The boat’s flat hull pushes water down as it speeds up, lifting most of the boat clear of the waves. Less hull rubbing the water means less drag—and suddenly…
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A hurricane turned Florida's ocean railway into a road project
The 1935 Labor Day hurricane wrecked sections of the railway to Key West and ended its train service. Surviving bridges and the right-of-way then helped form…
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Egypt flooded ancient routes and supplied bad ferries
Lake Nasser swallowed old Nubian roads beneath its reservoir, leaving some communities dependent on ferries. When the boats were slow or unreliable, a short…
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The disorder that turns injuries into bone
With FOP, even minor muscle injuries can trigger bone to grow in places that should stay soft. The new bone does not replace the skeleton; it builds unwanted…
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A chemist made pictures by letting chemicals spread through paper
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge produced elaborate 'capillary pictures' in the nineteenth century. Liquids traveled through paper and reacted to form colored rings…
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Folger and Frykowski deaths ruined celebrity trust
The murders of Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Sharon Tate shattered the era's sense of celebrity openness. Within 48 hours, security companies were…
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