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
Wii Sports reached millions of homes inside the console box
Bundling the game with the Wii in many markets gave Nintendo's motion controls an immediately playable demonstration. Its lifetime sales total includes those…
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Australia made a one-tonne gold coin
In 2011, the Perth Mint made it from 99.99% pure gold. The coin weighs one metric tonne, is nearly a meter wide, and has a face value of one million…
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Why airport liquids are limited to 100 milliliters
The 3.4-ounce limit is the U.S. equivalent of 100 milliliters, the rounded metric limit for carry-on liquids. It isn’t tied to a specific amount of explosive…
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Tarmac was once a brand name
Tarmac began as a brand name for tar-bound macadam: crushed stone sealed together with tar to make a road surface. The name stuck so firmly that people now…
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Why GPS stops working at extreme speeds and heights
GPS receivers have a built-in speed-and-altitude limit tied to rules meant to keep the technology from guiding fast, high-flying weapons. Cross that line and…
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Early Nazi party members originated from a bizarre German occult group obsessed with finding the magical city of Thule
The Thule Society promoted the idea that the Aryan race descended from a mythical lost continent. It sponsored the political party Hitler later took over.
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Table tennis began as a Victorian dinner game
Victorian hosts improvised the game on dining tables, batting a champagne cork back and forth with cigar-box lids. Some called it “Wiff-Waff.”
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A real neon sign only glows one color
Pure neon gas glows reddish-orange when electricity excites it. Other gases produce other colors, and phosphor coatings can shift the light again—so a blue…
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The first car race came almost as soon as cars did
In 1894, the Paris–Rouen contest sent early motor vehicles on a long road trial, judging practical qualities such as safety and ease of use alongside speed.…
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Your phone probably wasn't going to crash the plane
The restrictions were precautionary, not evidence that a Kindle could bring down a 747; passengers were asked to put devices away during takeoff.
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Blind Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga famously predicted the absolute end of the universe would occur in the year 5079
She reportedly gave no details about how the universe would end.
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The AI-written poetry book that appeared in 1984
In 1984, a program called Racter published The Policeman's Beard Is Half Constructed, a book of strange, free-associative prose generated by a computer.
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Why Googling your opinion can make it harder to change
Googling a belief can turn a passing opinion into a case you’re prepared to defend. You gather supporting links, remember the evidence that fits, and build a…
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Why you shouldn't split every pill in half
A pill that isn’t designed to split may not divide its medicine evenly, so one half might not deliver half the dose. Some tablets also rely on their intact…
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Film sets use deafening fans that erase dialogue and force actors to dub lines later
The jet-engine-sized fans used to whip a hero’s cape into the air can drown out every line during filming.
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Sublimation channels anger into socially accepted work
Sublimation is what happens when a difficult impulse gets a socially acceptable outlet. Instead of acting out anger, someone might pour that energy into…
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Some medicine capsules have livestock-derived gelatin shells
The capsule's shell may come from gelatin made by processing livestock byproducts such as collagen-rich tissue. That means the medicine inside can be entirely…
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When your own limb feels like a stranger’s
Your brain normally combines signals about a limb—what you see, feel, and intend to move—to experience it as yours. When those signals stop lining up, the…
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Sunflower seeds are sorted by size, with the smallest ones sold as birdseed
Sifters turn one harvest into two products: the plump seeds go to snackers, and the smaller ones go to bird feeders. What looks like a leftover size has its…
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Lighting three matches consecutively invites doom
The belief is traced to trench warfare, where holding a match long enough to light three items could give a sniper time to aim in the dark.
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A quasar can outshine the entire galaxy surrounding its feeding black hole
A quasar shines because gas spiraling toward a black hole gets heated, not because the black hole itself glows. The inward-moving gas rubs and crashes against…
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Medicine needs binding ingredients to compress active chemicals into solid tablets
A tablet starts as powder, which would crumble if it had nothing holding it together. Binders such as microcrystalline cellulose help the particles stick when…
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Compound bow cams let archers hold heavy tension with much less effort
Near full draw, the cams shift the bow's leverage, reducing the force needed to hold the string steady before release.
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Finding a continent's center depends on where you draw the edge
Rugby, North Dakota, is famous for its claim to North America's geographic center. But coastlines, islands, and the calculation method affect the answer. A…
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