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
One early barcode design was a bullseye
Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver's patented approach included concentric circles instead of the familiar straight stripes. A circular pattern could be…
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Doctor Who Was Once Meant to Teach History
When Doctor Who launched in 1963, BBC executives intended it as an educational program to teach children about historical events.
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Doom almost became an Alien game
Doom's creators considered acquiring the rights to the Alien franchise early in development, before deciding to build their own universe instead.
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Hello Kitty's fictional hometown is near London
Sanrio's biography gives its Japanese character a childhood in London's suburbs, with parents and a twin sister named Mimmy. The two can be distinguished by…
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Your bank card chip began in France
The chip was developed in France in the mid-1980s to fight fraud on toll phones, before the technology spread to bank cards.
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Silent-film actors did not have to stay silent on set
Without synchronized dialogue recording, directors could call instructions during a take, and performers could speak while acting. What mattered to the…
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The MGM lion that survived a plane crash
One of the lions used in early MGM studio introductions survived a plane crash while being flown across the country in a small promotional aircraft.
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When FDR served hot dogs to a king
With war looming, Roosevelt used an informal meal to build rapport with the king. Hot dogs made the royal visit feel less like a state occasion and more like…
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This Ethiopian volcano has kept lava exposed for decades
Erta Ale is famous for long-lived lava-lake activity, documented since 1967 and possibly reaching back to 1906. Instead of cooling into an ordinary crater…
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Donkey Kong world records are still fiercely contested
Players spend thousands of hours optimizing jumps and barrel patterns, and the world-record score keeps changing.
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Can a pill help protect your skin from the sun
Fern-extract antioxidants in some supplements are intended to help the skin resist UV damage from within. They do not stop UV rays from reaching your skin, so…
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Scientists slowed a light pulse to about 17 meters per second
Lene Hau's team used an ultracold sodium gas and a second laser to alter how the gas interacted with the pulse. The pulse's progress slowed dramatically…
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How spoofed GPS signals put yachts on land
Spoofed satellite signals can make a yacht appear miles inland on tracking systems, obscuring its real route at sea.
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The golden age of piracy lasted decades, not forever
The famous Caribbean pirate world belongs mainly to the late 1600s and early 1700s. Expanding trade offered targets, while wars supplied experienced sailors…
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Snowy owls have reflective eyes and silent wings
One proposed explanation is that drivers on dark rural roads mistook migrating snowy owls’ reflective eyes and broad, silent wings for something monstrous.
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Modern password spaces are highly secure and memorable
Long passphrases with spaces, such as “my dog loves green apples,” can be easier to remember than symbol-heavy strings while still being difficult for hacking…
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Losing smell takes away more than the scent of dinner
Familiar odors help make food rewarding and call up memories of people and places. Long-term smell loss can disrupt those experiences and is associated with…
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Saturn's rings may be younger than the dinosaurs
Some estimates put the rings' age at roughly 100 million years, when dinosaurs were already thriving on Earth. One clue is how much dark material has…
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A scientist imagined a forecast computer made of 64,000 people
In 1922, Lewis Fry Richardson described a vast hall where human calculators would each compute the weather for part of the world. A coordinator would keep…
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Why most gladiators did not fight to the death
Gladiators were costly to replace, so referees oversaw many bouts and organizers often had reason to avoid a fatal finish. The arena needed fighters for…
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Historical magic books required ink mixed with heavy iron
Iron-gall ink, made using tree galls and metal, was permanent and corrosive enough to damage parchment—qualities that made it seem suited to binding demons to…
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The playwright who reportedly died under a falling tortoise
According to legend, an eagle mistook Aeschylus’s bald head for a rock and dropped a tortoise on it to crack the shell.
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The original PlayStation almost whispered its own name
Sound designer Takafumi Fujisawa recorded a version of the startup sound with a whispered 'PlayStation' layered over it. The team dropped the idea of the…
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Steve Vai played guitar on Halo 2’s famous theme
Vai recorded the electric-guitar riffs over an ancient monk chant, creating the theme’s distinctive sound.
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