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 synthesizer you play by blowing into it
The Akai EWI turns breath pressure and lip movements into MIDI data, letting players control synthesizer sounds with a wind instrument.
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One of Vienna’s historic monuments is a public restroom
The underground facilities on the Graben opened in 1905 and are protected for their Art Nouveau design. A practical street service received the decorative…
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When television filled dead air with wet paint
Early variety shows used giant boards and buckets of paint to create art live, filling airtime with a cheap spectacle while the paint dried.
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The Simplon Tunnel put nearly 20 kilometers of railway under the Alps
When it opened in 1906, the tunnel was the world's longest railway tunnel. It linked western Switzerland to Italy beneath a mountain barrier instead of…
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Flammarion applied scientific rigor to poltergeists
At 1857 Paris séances, French astronomer Camille Flammarion recorded events using scientific documentation methods, treating mediums like subjects in…
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A 1940 machine challenged fairgoers to a game of Nim
Westinghouse built Nimatron for the New York World's Fair using electrical relays and rows of lights. Players took turns removing lights according to Nim's…
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Tourists once paid to watch the Panama Canal
When tourist cruises began transiting the Panama Canal in 1927, affluent travelers paid to sit in the tropical sun and watch its lock gates open and close.
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Fishing boats became emergency ferries after an explosion
When an explosion wrecked roads and disrupted ordinary transport, fishing boats became rescue craft and ferries. Their shallow drafts let them reach…
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Breaking out of a supposedly inescapable roof prison
Casanova escaped Venice's Piombi prison by hiding an iron spike in a hollowed-out Bible and digging through the ceiling. After crossing the palace's lead roof…
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Why Dragnet actors sounded like they were speed-reading
Jack Webb disliked dramatic pauses and emotional acting, so he pushed actors to read their lines quickly from teleprompters.
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Why some people heard Yanny and others Laurel
The recording contains both high- and low-frequency cues: listeners who picked up more of the higher frequencies heard “Yanny,” while those who heard more of…
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A mathematician crawled around to animate a cat
For the 1968 computer film Kitty, Viktor Minakhin needed equations describing a cat's movement. Colleague Nikolai Konstantinov recalled that an uncooperative…
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Burned wartime aircrew founded a club named after their own experimental treatment
Patients treated by plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe formed the Guinea Pig Club in 1941. Reconstructive surgery brought them together; humor and continuing…
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George Pullman cut workers' pay but kept rents high
Pullman cut wages while keeping rents in his company town high. Because the company owned the homes as well as the jobs, workers took the pay cut without…
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The inaudible sound that can jam hidden microphones
Ultrasonic scramblers emit high-frequency noise that people can’t hear but that can overwhelm some digital microphones, leaving recordings unusable.
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Chicago's 1933 World's Fair had money-like certificates of its own
Merchants distributed small-value certificates usable for the fair and services around the city, including hotels and transport. The American Numismatic…
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The doctor who injected sheep thyroid into patients
When the thyroid cannot provide enough hormone, the body’s systems slow down and severe hypothyroidism can cause myxedema. In 1891, Murray injected patients…
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Why Victorian tourists walked over the sea
Victorian pleasure piers let visitors take in the sea air without the nausea associated with riding on waves. Engineer Eugenius Birch helped drive the British…
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A Paris train overshot the platform—and the building
In 1895, an arriving train at Montparnasse failed to stop in time, crossed the concourse, and broke through the station's exterior wall. The locomotive came…
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When Charlie Chaplin turned murder into comedy
Monsieur Verdoux casts Chaplin as a man who marries and murders women for money, drawing on the case of French killer Henri Désiré Landru. Instead of the…
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The envoy who claimed Alexander was treated like a god
Onesicritus, a philosopher accompanying Alexander the Great in India, wrote that local ascetics praised Alexander as a god. His contemporaries accused him of…
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Making a machine cheaper to run can increase total fuel use
Greater efficiency lowers the cost of doing a task, which can encourage people to do much more of it. Jevons described this problem for coal-powered industry.…
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The metal machine that breathed for polio patients
Inside the metal chamber, pressure around the patient’s body rose and fell. When it dropped, the chest expanded and pulled air in; when it rose again, the…
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Britain enforced India's salt tax with a giant hedge
The colonial Inland Customs Line stretched roughly 2,500 miles, with long sections reinforced by thorny vegetation. Guards searched for salt carried across…
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