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
Your original idea may be an old memory
Memory stores what you encountered more reliably than where you encountered it. So a sentence, image, or solution can resurface with the feeling of…
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Why ordinary helicopters can't rescue climbers on Everest
At Everest’s height, thin air gives a helicopter’s rotors less to bite into and its engine less oxygen to work with. Hovering needs extra lift, especially…
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Ventricular fibrillation makes the heart quiver uselessly
A normal heartbeat depends on an electrical signal that makes the heart chambers contract in order. In ventricular fibrillation, the signals scramble and the…
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Your brain can remember facts but lose their source
A fact can stick while its little label—“my friend said this,” “I read it in an ad”—falls off. When the source is lost, familiarity may be mistaken for proof,…
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Why ancient Egyptians slept on stone headrests
The rigid support kept elaborate hairstyles elevated and helped keep scorpions and lice away. Comfort took second place to protecting both the hairdo and the…
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Risk gives defenders the ties—and attackers an extra die
A defender wins equal dice, but a sufficiently large attacking force can roll three dice against two. Those advantages pull in opposite directions, so the…
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How fighter jets refuel in midair
A tanker trails a fuel hose ending in a drogue, a basket-shaped target. The fighter pilot guides a probe into it, then fuel flows between the aircraft; at…
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Your inbox has to judge a sender before you ever open the message
Spam filters combine signals such as sender reputation, suspicious links and patterns in the message. Blocking junk is a classification problem with two…
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Sleep deprivation can become fatal faster than starvation
Prolonged sleep loss can seriously disrupt brain function and the immune system, eventually putting the body’s organs under dangerous strain. Starvation…
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Fake profiles are used for scoping
Some users create fake accounts to look up strangers’ charts, then abandon them as ghost profiles in the database.
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Why Frankenstein's monster wore 13-pound boots
The boots weighed 13 pounds each and were modified from asphalt-paving gear, giving Karloff's monster a genuinely heavy, shambling gait.
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Enthusiasts love leaving small piles of dust everywhere
If incense holders aren’t emptied, fine gray ash can spread over nearby surfaces.
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Jack Nicholson's Batman contract included Lakers games
His Batman contract required filming to accommodate every Lakers home game, so the production schedule had to work around his basketball plans.
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How Sailor Moon borrowed from superhero teams
Creator Naoko Takeuchi was a fan of Super Sentai, the team-based shows about heroes in colorful suits fighting monsters. She brought that group-transformation…
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Why we're so bad at spotting lies
A lie can be hard to spot because the signs people expect are poor clues. Someone might avoid eye contact because they’re anxious, or hold it because they’re…
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Gravity painfully dragging dirt down hillsides
A hillside holds soil in place through friction and tangled roots. Gravity keeps pulling downhill; when water loosens the soil or a slope gets too steep, that…
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Why hearses can be stretched-out station wagons
A hearse needs a long, low cargo space, and a station wagon already has one. Stretch the chassis, add room for the coffin, and the family car becomes a…
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Tanuki proudly sport enormous magical scrotums
In Japanese folklore, tanuki are pranksters whose scrotums can stretch to fantastical sizes—large enough to become umbrellas, boats, or parachutes in…
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The tiny cable latch that can wreck your graphics card
Some DisplayPort cables have small metal latches that lock into the socket; press the release before pulling to help prevent damage to the port.
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Lot of eros pinpoints your disastrous romantic choices
The Lot of Eros is used in astrology to interpret passion and desire, especially impulsive romantic choices.
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Mad libs relies on obliterating standard syntax
Players supply nouns and adjectives before seeing the story, creating often-absurd sentences while practicing parts of speech.
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Why you remember the first names best
At a round of introductions, the first names arrive before your attention is crowded by everyone else’s. You can rehearse them while the next person speaks,…
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An experiment put baby photos in wallets to see which came back
Psychologist Richard Wiseman reported leaving wallets with different photographs around Edinburgh. Those containing a baby picture had the highest return rate…
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How open-mic comedy began in London pubs
The idea grew out of UK pub nights where patrons were invited to get onstage and entertain the room, long before today's sign-up lists and wait times.
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