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
Some dice players throw harder when they want a high number
Sociologist James Henslin described such rituals among the craps players he observed in the 1960s. The action makes an uncertain result feel connected to a…
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Jurassic Park dinosaur sneeze being pure CGI
The Brachiosaurus’s gooey sneeze had to be created digitally because water looked too thin on camera; the effects team spent weeks crafting the dinosaur snot.
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Why international adoption can cost so much
Before a child comes home, prospective parents may pay for a home study, foreign legal translations, and agency processing. The stack of separate fees can…
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Celery fills space without bringing many calories
Most of its weight is water, and its fibrous structure gives it plenty to chew for relatively little energy. Digestion uses energy too, but that doesn't…
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Lincoln's funeral train crossed the country in black
The train carried Lincoln’s body from Washington to Springfield, and its black paint and mourning drapery made the journey a rolling public memorial. At stops…
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Platonic solids are strictly limited to five variations
A regular solid can form a corner only if the faces meeting there leave some room to bend inward. If their angles add up to 360 degrees or more, they lie flat…
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The salty desert pools behind lithium batteries
Some lithium is extracted from salty underground brine pumped into broad desert ponds. Sunlight evaporates the water over months, concentrating the lithium…
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Why vertical farms can cost ten times more
A vertical farm has to power the sunlight its warehouse cannot get from the sky. Add climate control, and operating costs can push its produce to ten times…
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Our planet's English name comes from the ground
Mars and Venus carry the names of deities, but Earth grew from words for soil and land. People used the word beneath their feet before they understood their…
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The duel settled with infected sausages
Instead of a sword, the scholar produced pork infected with trichinosis. His opponent called off the duel; the parasite never had to fight—the threat alone…
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Alice Bailey's school completely abolished all tuition
The international correspondence school relied on voluntary donations and did not invoice students for course materials.
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Massive steel ships float by displacing heavy water
A ship floats because its hollow hull pushes aside enough water to weigh as much as the ship. The steel itself is dense, but the hull holds a huge volume of…
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When Lara Croft's hair brought PCs to their knees
Tomb Raider’s 2013 PC release introduced AMD’s TressFX hair simulation for Lara. Rather than moving the ponytail as one rigid piece, it modeled many strands…
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Why your phone screen gets smudgier
A thin coating helps new screens repel greasy fingerprints, but repeated swiping wears it down, making smudges stick more readily.
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The dinosaur that was bigger than T. rex
The clue to Spinosaurus’s likely menu is in its long, narrow jaws and cone-shaped teeth, which suggest fish-catching around rivers and other waterways. It may…
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Why borrowed tools make people more reckless
When your own tool breaks, you lose money. When a borrowed one breaks, the owner does. That split can make people take risks with someone else’s equipment…
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The first web browser had the same name as the web
Tim Berners-Lee first called his browser WorldWideWeb, the same name as the information space it opened. He later renamed it Nexus.
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Folding screens crease right down the middle
Repeated folding can leave a lasting crease down the center of the display, despite its flexible layers.
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How bumping an Xbox 360 could ruin a disc
While the console was running, moving or bumping it could make the disc scrape against the drive and leave a destructive circular gouge.
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Tetris four line clears provide maximum score jumps
The game rewards clearing four rows at once, so players often leave a well for the long straight piece—accepting the risk of waiting for it to appear.
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Spiritualists wrapped themselves in glowing fabrics painted with radium to convince people they were ghosts
Some fake mediums painted their robes, and sometimes their skin, with radium paint to glow in dark séance rooms. The radioactive paint created the ghostly…
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Fire signs loudly announce whatever crosses their mind
In astrology, fire signs are stereotyped as blurting out their thoughts rather than keeping observations to themselves.
Discover moreThe first Foo Fighters record was almost a one-man band
Dave Grohl recorded the debut's vocals and nearly all its instruments himself, with Greg Dulli adding a guitar part. The tracks existed before the familiar…
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German war plans simply assumed Russian armies moved slowly
German planners counted on Russia needing months to mobilize, building that delay into a carefully timed strategy. Russian forces moved faster than expected,…
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