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
An extra row of eyelashes can scratch the eye it surrounds
Distichiasis adds a second row of eyelashes, but the new hairs may grow toward the eye instead of away from it. Each blink can drag them across the eye’s…
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Mars is covered in the same rust as old bicycles
Mars looks rusty because iron-rich dust on its surface has reacted with oxygen—the same basic chemistry that rusts iron on Earth. Winds spread the fine grains…
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Donkey Kong has a level the clock can't handle
At one late level, a bug in the bonus-time calculation gives players too little time to finish before the timer expires.
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Distilling the philosophical liquid of life
Alchemists sought a mythical elixir said to cure every ailment and expand the mind, but no one managed to make it.
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Astrological planets merely reflect solar radiation instead of generating any magical celestial energy
Astrology assigns planets influence over human affairs, but their visible glow comes from reflected sunlight, not light they produce themselves.
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Lions breath makes you look absurd
The technique involves sticking out your tongue and exhaling forcefully; practitioners say it releases tension and clears the throat.
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Some places pay hunters for feral hog tails
Some agricultural regions pay hunters by the tail—not for a trophy, but to cut down feral hogs damaging farmland. The tail serves as the proof that earns the…
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Scorpio folks keep mental lists of everyone who wronged them
It supposedly keeps a pristine mental ledger of every slight, going all the way back to early childhood.
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League of Legends grew from the community around a Warcraft III mod
Defense of the Ancients demonstrated the appeal of teams fighting through lanes with individually controlled heroes. Riot recruited people involved in that…
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Mars can get snowfall made from carbon dioxide
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected carbon-dioxide ice clouds and evidence of snowfall near the south pole. It is dry ice, a different material from…
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Step down transformers reduce dangerous grid voltages
Step-down transformers lower the grid’s high voltage to levels suitable for household outlets and appliances.
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Audio podcasts hit over two million active shows
In 2021, more than two million podcast feeds were active, from professional productions to amateur shows.
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Mario Golf features an unseen announcer cheering shots
A disembodied, enthusiastic announcer praises every clean swing, turning a leisurely round into an over-the-top pep rally.
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Connect four release levers dump all tokens instantly
A bar beneath the board releases all 42 checkers at once, sending them down a slide instead of making you remove them one by one.
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Mark Hamill started filming as Luke Starkiller
Hamill has recalled that the character's surname changed during production of the original Star Wars. He was so accustomed to Starkiller that Skywalker…
Discover morePenn and Teller perform cups and balls with clear cups
They perform the classic cups-and-balls trick with clear plastic cups, yet misdirection can still fool audiences—even when the balls are visible being put…
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Slow-moving oil can still carry enormous volume through a pipeline
Flow rate depends on both speed and the pipe's cross-section. A broad pipeline moves a large amount of oil even when the liquid itself is traveling at an…
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How tensegrity makes solid bars appear to float
Tension cables suspend the rigid bars without letting them rest on one another; opposing pulls hold the structure in balance.
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Sega Saturn surprise early launch completely flopped
The surprise launch caught retailers off guard: many stores hadn’t been told, straining relationships with the partners needed to sell the console.
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Why Tasmanian devils bite each other at dinner
At a carcass, a Tasmanian devil’s bickering and face-biting help decide who gets to eat. The animals use noisy scuffles to signal rank: those able to shove…
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Auckland commuter ferries bypass heavy urban bridge traffic
The harbor is the shortcut: ferries carry commuters across the water instead of sending them around it to join Auckland’s bridge queues. Traffic gets a…
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Boston's street map preserves a city that grew in pieces
Routes developed around an older peninsula, its shoreline, and successive areas of expansion rather than one uniform grid. Later land-making and redevelopment…
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Water dominance makes you absorb everyone else's baggage
A strong water-element influence is said to make you unusually sensitive to other people’s moods—like a sponge soaking up every sigh in the room.
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A patch of Yukon sand remembers an ancient lake
The Carcross dunes contain sand and silt left by a glacial lake near the end of the last ice age. Wind keeps redistributing the loose material, producing a…
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