The world is more interesting than you think.
Unexpected facts, big ideas, and little discoveries. Find something that sparks your curiosity today.
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Standard life insurance policies exclude acts of war
A standard life insurance policy may exclude deaths caused by war or martial law. If that exclusion applies, the person’s beneficiaries may not receive a…
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Why your sense of time gets everything wrong
When you check the clock, attention makes time feel exposed: every minute gets noticed. Looking back, memory works differently, using distinctive events as…
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Top secret film scripts are heavily watermarked for leaks
Studios can give each actor's script a unique watermark, making it possible to trace a leaked copy back to its recipient.
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This concert kept going for more than 18 days
In 2017, musicians at Ontario's Earl of Whitchurch pub sustained a concert for 437 hours, 54 minutes, and 40 seconds. Performers rotated rather than one band…
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A lacrosse game could bring hundreds onto the field
In the 1830s, George Catlin described Choctaw players competing on a field about half a mile long. Indigenous versions of the game varied widely and could…
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You can feel homesick for a place you've never seen
You can miss a place you know only through stories, photographs, or imagination because homesickness is partly a longing for what the place represents:…
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Soviet probe Venera 7 transmitted data from Venus surface
Venera 7 carried its radio and instruments inside a pressure-resistant lander built for Venus’s crushing atmosphere and furnace heat. After touchdown, it sent…
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Why classical musicians take beta blockers
Beta blockers slow the heart rate and can reduce the trembling and other physical symptoms of performance anxiety, helping musicians steady their hands during…
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Arm wrestling can break the upper arm without either player hitting it
Opposing forces can twist the humerus, the long bone between shoulder and elbow, until it fractures in a spiral. Reviews of reported cases include many…
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NASA's solar-wind samples survived a failed parachute landing
Genesis collected particles streaming from the Sun and returned them in a capsule. Backward-installed sensors prevented the parachute system from deploying,…
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Why shutting down a nuclear plant takes decades
A plant can stop generating power in a day; making it safe to leave behind is a much longer job. Crews must cool spent fuel, clean contaminated concrete, and…
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Farmers really grow catnip for your cat
Catnip is cultivated and sold because cat owners pay for the effect it has on their cats. A member of the mint family has become a commercial crop for pets.
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Why Gila monsters have enormous tails
A Gila monster stores fat in its thick tail, then draws on that reserve during long stretches without food. As the stored energy gets used, the tail can…
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Aggressive ants invaded the United States
Red imported fire ants arrived at an Alabama port in the 1930s and spread across the South. Their large mounds and painful stings turned an arrival most…
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An ordinary egg beat Kylie Jenner on Instagram
In January 2019, an account asked users to make a plain brown egg the platform's most-liked photo. People joined the challenge and overtook Jenner's record.…
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Why wombats use their backsides as shields
When danger follows a wombat home, the animal can turn around and wedge its tough, cartilage-reinforced backside into the burrow entrance. That leaves a…
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Your address travels with your car insurance bill
Insurers price groups of drivers as well as individuals. Where a car is kept changes its exposure to theft, crashes and other claims, so a move can alter the…
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Luggage carts require nesting to charge locking mechanisms
When carts nest together, electrical contacts line up and recharge the batteries that run their wheel locks. The airport’s answer to a charging dock is a long…
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Cricket's early history includes a grown man recalling a childhood game
A 1598 court record contains testimony about cricket played by boys at Guildford decades earlier. That gives historians something firmer than the picturesque…
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Ancient game boards survived more clearly than their rulebooks
Cross-in-square designs carved into Roman-era stone surfaces are often interpreted as boards for a three-piece alignment game. Ovid mentions a game of three…
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Grandmothers may help explain our unusually long lives
The grandmother hypothesis proposes that helping descendants can favor survival beyond a person's reproductive years. Food, care, and knowledge can improve…
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Argentina holds highest non-Asian peak
Loose scree makes Aconcagua less technical than many climbs, but the high-altitude route is no easy walk. Thin air and extreme cold turn its summit into a…
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Minneapolis saved a theater by moving the building
In 1999, the Shubert Theater was relocated from Seventh Street to Hennepin Avenue rather than demolished. The historic structure got a new address while…
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Why being late can signal high status
A person who seems important can make a room wait and have the delay read as confidence. The hidden cue is other people’s response: if nobody challenges the…
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