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 a nuclear test sparked Japan’s tuna panic
The fallout landed on a fishing boat, so the danger arrived with the catch—not as a distant cloud but as food headed for market. The crew developed radiation…
Discover more
Yellowstone visitors once cooked fish without taking them off the hook
At Fishing Cone, anglers caught fish in the cold lake and lowered them into a nearby hot spring to cook. The novelty became a tourist ritual. The practice is…
Discover more
A pirate queen negotiated with Elizabeth I in Latin
After an English governor captured her son, Grace O’Malley sailed to London to negotiate with Elizabeth I. Latin was their workaround: neither spoke the…
Discover more
A fake alien hijacked British television in 1977
In 1977, a prankster hijacked the audio of a regional British TV broadcast with a six-minute message from “Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command.” The voice…
Discover more
Grumpy dead man spoke through a possessed British tween
The 1973 Enfield case centered on an 11-year-old who seemed to channel Bill, a former tenant who said he died of a hemorrhage in a chair.
Discover more
How snacks helped treat a child's rabbit phobia
In a classic treatment, a child who feared rabbits ate a favorite snack while a rabbit sat at a distance, then gradually came closer over time. The pleasant…
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.
London's first commemorative plaque outlived neither the house nor itself
The Society of Arts put up a plaque at Lord Byron's birthplace in 1867, but the building was demolished in 1889. A plaque to Napoleon III from the same…
Discover more
The 808 made an artificial drum sound worth copying
Roland's TR-808 built its percussion electronically rather than playing recordings of real drums. Its distinctive synthetic sounds became part of the musical…
Discover more
A spinning drum made drawings appear to move
The zoetrope shows a sequence of pictures through narrow slits in a rotating cylinder. The slits interrupt the view so the images do not simply blur together.…
Discover more
Sewing machines once had to display royalty stamps
After a patent fight with Isaac Singer, Elias Howe joined a patent pool that made sewing-machine manufacturers pay royalties. Each machine carried a stamp…
Discover more
Microbes are eating Venice's ancient stone
The film on Venice’s stone and glass is alive, and its microbes can chemically alter the materials beneath them. As they grow, those changes gradually weaken…
Discover more
DeMille helped give directors their megaphone image
Cecil B. DeMille's boots, cap, and commanding on-set presence became part of the popular picture of a film director. His career also spanned the difficult…
Discover more
The railcar that kept rural trains running
A lightweight railcar carried passengers with its own engine, instead of needing a locomotive to haul a whole train. That made quiet rural routes cheaper to…
Discover more
The IBM firing that couldn't stop Lynn Conway
After IBM fired her in the 1960s when she announced her gender transition, Conway rebuilt her career and co-authored the Mead-Conway VLSI design rules, which…
Discover more
An FDA reviewer blocked Thalidomide from the US market
Dr. Frances Kelsey insisted on evidence that thalidomide was safe for pregnant women, even as the drugmaker pressed for approval. Because she held the…
Discover more
Chemicals can grow rings like trees
A chemical front moves through a gel, and diffusing chemicals react as they meet. When their concentration reaches a threshold, they leave a solid band; the…
Discover more
One engineer thought workers couldn't afford what they made
Clifford Hugh Douglas thought he had found a gap between factory output and workers’ pay: the goods cost more than the wages workers received. He argued that…
Discover more
The singer who disguised herself to enter Tibet
In 1924, 55-year-old French explorer Alexandra David-Néel disguised herself as a Tibetan pilgrim, smearing her face with soot and wearing a necklace of human…
Discover more
When Europe faced a shortage of coins
Silver was scarce, while gold flowed east to pay for luxury goods, leaving Europe short of coins. People cut coins into pieces, bartered, or borrowed on…
Discover more
Bernadette ate literal mud to appease a divine vision
During the 1858 Lourdes apparitions, Bernadette Soubirous reportedly ate mud after a vision instructed her to dig. Her digging uncovered a spring that became…
Discover more
Mathematical symmetry dictates universe survival
If the laws of physics work the same tomorrow as today, energy is conserved. If they work the same here as a few steps away, momentum is conserved. Noether's…
Discover more
Sybille Bedford wrote about wine, roads and chaos
In the ration-starved years after World War II, Bedford traveled through Mexico and Southern Europe, writing about wine, three-hour lunches, terrible roads…
Discover more
A truck's ground clearance can defeat a car's crash protection
In an underride collision, a smaller vehicle slides beneath a truck or trailer instead of meeting it bumper to bumper. That can bypass the structures designed…
Discover more
A jet landed after losing a huge section of its roof
In 1988, Aloha Airlines Flight 243 suffered an explosive decompression that tore open the upper fuselage. The crew landed the damaged Boeing 737 in Hawaii. A…
Discover more