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
When Britain tried to tax gin out of existence
Parliament wanted gin drinkers to pay more, so it piled on duties. The legal price pushed distillers underground instead, and the black-market trade grew…
Discover more
The prehistoric animal with four tusks
Gomphotherium’s lower tusks grew from an elongated jaw and stuck out beneath its upper pair. Together, the four tusks could look like two pairs of…
Discover more
The wombat relative that grew as large as a rhino
The rhino comparison is about size, not family. Diprotodon was a huge plant-eating marsupial and the largest known member of that group; its closest living…
Discover more
Carpocratians believed sinning was mandatory for heaven
They saw the body as a prison, so they believed the soul had to experience every possible sin to escape it.
Discover more
Even a picture of a foot can pull your attention in its direction
In experiments, participants located targets while an irrelevant foot image pointed left or right. Researchers found that these bodily direction cues could…
Discover more
Social platforms aggressively clone competitors
When an app introduces a feature such as disappearing photos or short-form video, larger platforms often copy it. Their bigger user bases give them an…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Deferred shading delays lighting calculations
The engine draws the scene's shapes before calculating lighting, avoiding work on pixels that may not be visible.
Discover more
The sect that turned bodily fluids into sacraments
The Borborites reportedly treated bodily fluids as sacramental, believing their consumption could bring divine salvation.
Discover more
Why wider faces can look more aggressive
People use faces to make rapid guesses about threat, and width can feed that snap judgment: a broader face may look more imposing. The mind turns a visual cue…
Discover more
Why dead people sometimes receive government checks
Relatives have even tried to cash those checks. During large relief efforts, outdated tax records can send government payments to people who have died.
Discover more
Dead code executes purely for no reason
Unused code can linger because developers worry that removing it might break a system that still depends on it.
Discover more
Mancation denotes forced masculine bonding trips
Mancation blends “man” and “vacation” into a name for a male-only group trip. The getaway might revolve around a cabin, grilling, or shared activities; the…
Discover more
Factories once piped hot soup to workers
A central kitchen pumped hot soup through insulated pipes to serving points around the factory. Workers got lunch without the whole workforce marching across…
Discover more
Sixty year old prophetess claimed she carried the messiah
At 64, Joanna Southcott announced she was miraculously pregnant with a new savior. She died soon afterward, leaving thousands of followers facing an empty…
Discover more
A Renaissance surgeon learned a burn remedy from a stranger
Ambroise Paré described being shown a poultice of crushed onions for burns, then trying it on patients. The revealing detail is his willingness to test advice…
Discover more
Red blood cells only survive for roughly four months
Red blood cells circulate for about 120 days, squeezing through tiny vessels along the way. As they age and become less flexible, the spleen filters them out…
Discover more
Curved rooms won a beauty contest inside a brain scanner
In a 2013 study, people judging pictures of interiors were more likely to call curved spaces beautiful than straight-edged ones. The experiment examined…
Discover more
Why erasers leave crumbs behind
Rub an eraser over pencil marks and its rubber grips the graphite clinging to the paper fibers. The rubbing also wears down the eraser, so it sheds crumbs…
Discover more
In one study, daydreamers also scored higher on creativity
Georgia Tech researchers compared mind-wandering reports, ability tests, and resting brain scans in more than 100 people. More frequent daydreaming was…
Discover more
The nuns who insured the next Messiah
The policy covered an oddly specific possibility: a nun giving birth to the Messiah. It was meant to insure the cost of raising the child, should that happen.
Discover more
Early church members slept with ascetics to test resolve
Some early Christian ascetics shared a bed with women who had vowed virginity as a test of self-control, showing the congregation they could resist temptation.
Discover more
Do not disturb signs started in the early 1900s
Early 20th-century hotels introduced door hangers so guests could signal that they didn’t want housekeeping to enter.
Discover more
Why some British pubs insure themselves against ghosts
Some British pubs can buy insurance for damage or lost revenue attributed to ghosts. The policy turns a haunting from a spooky story into something the owner…
Discover more
Australia's demon duck had a skull the size of a horse's
The extinct bird nicknamed the Demon Duck of Doom stood about 2.5 meters tall and weighed roughly 300 kilograms. Its deep bill sat on an enormous skull, above…
Discover more