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
Antarctica has the cold, but not the polar bears
Polar bears evolved in the north and hunt from sea ice. Cold habitat at the other pole was never connected to them by an ice-covered route across the oceans.…
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OnlyFans paid hundreds of millions in UK corporate tax
Its parent company brings in enormous revenue, leaving it with UK corporate tax bills in the hundreds of millions. A platform best known for creator…
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Space Shuttle software prized predictability over sheer size
The Shuttle’s primary flight software contained roughly 400,000 lines of code. Engineers subjected changes to extensive review and testing because a small…
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Philosopher Aristotle used palm reading to evaluate the psychological traits of military officers
Aristotle reportedly regarded palm lines as signs of a person’s soul and used palmistry to advise Alexander the Great about which officers to trust.
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Wikipedia began as a workaround for expert-only Nupedia
Nupedia’s seven-step review process by PhDs produced only 21 articles in its first year, prompting the creation of an open-edit alternative.
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Why your nose and toes get cold first
When you get cold, blood vessels in your nose and toes narrow, sending less warm blood to those exposed areas and helping conserve heat for your core. The…
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The Antarctic airport where jets land on blue ice
Blue ice is hard, compacted ice, not a runway made of fresh snow. Crews groom and inspect its surface so wheeled jets have a firm strip to land on in…
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A schoolteacher built a checkers-playing computer program in the 1950s
Christopher Strachey's early attempt for the Pilot ACE ran into problems, but a version on Manchester's Ferranti Mark I could play a complete game by 1952. It…
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Walter Kilner invented aura reading goggles using a highly toxic chemical dye called dicyanin
In 1911, Kilner claimed that looking through glass screens containing the coal-tar dye dicyanin let people see colored halos around the body.
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Britain’s tax laws still leave room for paying with cows
An old British law is sometimes said to let people settle debts to the Crown with livestock, but the claim is theoretical—not a practical way to pay HMRC with…
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Why a losing streak makes a win feel inevitable
A losing streak makes the next win feel like a debt the world has to repay. Our minds expect random outcomes to even out in the short term, so each loss can…
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The Simpsons helped turn meh into a widely recognized shrug
The show used the word in the 1990s, and Lisa later spelled it out to underline her indifference. Collins added it in 2008, although the expression has older…
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The middle of a list has a memory disadvantage
At the start of a list, you have room to focus and quietly repeat what you hear; at the end, the most recent items are still easy to hold in mind. The middle…
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Queen Victoria gave away enormous underwear
Near the end of her reign, Queen Victoria's waist reportedly measured 50 inches, and she gave monogrammed bloomers to loyal servants as parting gifts. Royal…
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Every single face you see in your dreams belongs to a real person you passed in waking life
Dreams may borrow faces you’ve seen, but the claim that every dream face belongs to someone you passed in waking life is unproven. Your brain draws on stored…
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The fake Apple stores where employees thought they worked for Apple
The stores copied Apple’s winding staircases, minimalist wooden tables and blue employee lanyards so convincingly that staff reportedly thought Apple had…
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Crystal gazing became extremely popular after John of Salisbury complained about it in the twelfth century
In the 12th century, John of Salisbury condemned “specularii,” people who used polished surfaces to search for stolen goods; his detailed account may have…
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Programming ENIAC meant changing wires and switches
Unveiled in 1946, the room-sized electronic computer used about 18,000 vacuum tubes. Setting up a calculation involved physical connections and control panels…
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One Times Square made its outer walls the main attraction
For years, the building earned its reputation as an advertising powerhouse while much of its interior was little used. The valuable asset was exposure to the…
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French occultist Eliphas Levi failed out of the priesthood before writing the modern rules of high magic
Alphonse Louis Constant adopted the name Eliphas Levi and popularized links between Tarot and the Kabbalah, along with the pentagram's role in occultism.
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Leave It to Beaver needed a toilet to hide an alligator
In the 1957 episode Captain Jack, the boys put their new pet in a toilet tank. Showing the fixture caused trouble with television censors, so the tank…
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Why baby koalas eat their mother's feces
Eucalyptus leaves are tough food for a young koala: the joey needs gut microbes that help break down their fiber and handle the leaves’ defenses. It gets…
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Companies insure themselves against kidnapping ransoms
If an employee is kidnapped, a company may need specialists to negotiate for their release. Kidnap-and-ransom insurance can cover those crisis negotiators,…
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Inception's rotating hallway was a real set
The crew built a 100-foot hotel corridor inside a steel centrifuge that rotated 360 degrees, so Joseph Gordon-Levitt could fight stuntmen while the room spun…
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