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
Telehandlers are forklifts with long booms
The long boom reaches over obstacles and lifts cargo to height, while the forks do the familiar forklift job at the end. It’s a forklift with a telescoping…
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The imagined betrayal behind 'Mr. Brightside'
Flowers said the song’s detailed jealousy was imagined: after catching a girlfriend cheating, he spun out worst-case scenarios.
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Slow twitch muscles are physically built for pure endurance
Slow-twitch fibers make less force in a sudden burst, but they can keep contracting without tiring as quickly. They help you hold your posture or keep moving…
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The 'junk DNA' that helps control your genes
Protein-coding DNA supplies recipes; other DNA can help decide when those recipes get used. That regulatory role is why some stretches once dismissed as…
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Brewing beer entirely by nighttime glow
Some traditional brewers waited for a completely dark sky to begin fermentation, fearing extra light would ruin the yeast.
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The Roman emperor whose throne was auctioned off
In 193 AD, the elite Roman guards murdered the emperor and offered the throne to the highest bidder. Senator Didius Julianus won with a bribe, then was…
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One Swiss canton voted to ban naked hiking
Appenzell Innerrhoden approved the ban in 2009 after complaints about unclothed walkers. The rule was a local response, not a blanket ban passed for all of…
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Psyche represents your internal mental gymnastics
Astrologers associate Psyche with intense bonds and the urge to merge mentally with someone—sometimes turning a one-word text into a full-blown analysis.
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Mount Elbert ranks as the highest peak in Colorado
At high altitude, thinner air makes the hike to the summit a gasping climb.
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In Russia, road grime can turn a license plate into a legal problem
The relevant rule concerns whether the registration plate is readable, not whether the paintwork looks freshly washed. Mud across the identifying characters…
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Yahoo's founders liked a name that made fun of themselves
Jerry Yang described choosing Yahoo partly for its association with the rude creatures in Gulliver's Travels. The founders also gave it the playful expansion…
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Metroid Prime makes hidden machinery glow through your visor
The Thermal Visor turns the scene into a heat-styled display, revealing targets such as power conduits that are difficult to spot normally. Switching vision…
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The sound engineer needs to sit where the audience listens
A position among the crowd lets the engineer hear the speakers and the room together. From backstage, the same show would sound very different. Giving up some…
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Degas sketched dancers rubbing their sore feet
He often drew dancers backstage, away from the stage’s graceful performances, as they scratched their backs or rubbed their sore feet.
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Gamma aminobutyric acid acts as a neural brake
Nerves constantly pass signals, and GABA helps keep that traffic from speeding up too much. It reduces the chance that nerve cells will fire, acting less like…
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Libra refuses to touch the household thermostat ever
They’d rather shiver in a coat than risk a disagreement over the air conditioning, even if adjusting the thermostat would make them more comfortable.
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An Egyptian eye remedy went into the patient's ear
The Ebers Papyrus records a treatment involving pig eyes, other ingredients, and spoken words, with the preparation poured into the ear. It places a physical…
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Quick-release skewers use a cam tension lever
Flip the skewer’s lever and its cam presses against the fork, tightening the wheel without winding a nut around the axle. One quick hand motion locks it; the…
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Why a wife was grammatically neuter
In Old English, grammatical gender was a noun category, not a label for biological sex: “wif” (the ancestor of “wife”) was neuter, while “wifmann” (the…
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Why reality-show contestants rarely drink freely
After lawsuits, producers began regulating how much alcohol contestants could drink. Some still get drinks, but their intake is limited.
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The NSA worried Furbies could record secrets
In 1999, the NSA barred Furbies from its premises over fears that the talking toys could record conversations. The apparent learning was an illusion: the toys…
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Your thoughts can't bring down a plane
A frightening thought can feel like a warning, especially when you’re already anxious. The mind links the thought to whatever happens next and mistakes that…
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Your bank balance is not a matching pile of banknotes
A deposit is a claim on the bank, not a reserved stack of bills with your name on it. Banks hold cash and other liquid assets while also making loans and…
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Your ski wax depends on the snow
Snow temperature and moisture change how much friction builds beneath a ski, so wax formulas change with the conditions. Harder wax suits cold, abrasive snow;…
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