Science
Discover facts about science. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Science
Why capybaras eat their own droppings
Grass is tough to digest, so a capybara’s first trip through the gut doesn’t capture all its nutrients. Gut microbes ferment the plant matter and help make…
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Uncomputable numbers mathematically cannot be calculated
There are only countably many computer programs, but uncountably many real numbers. Since any one program can generate the digits of at most one number, most…
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Water becomes sinister when you call it dihydrogen monoxide
The name describes two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. List hazards such as drowning and scalding without saying it is water, and ordinary truths become…
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The black part of a black mamba is inside its mouth
A black mamba is usually olive or gray; the “black” is inside its mouth. When cornered, it opens wide and flashes that dark lining as a warning. The snake’s…
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A small decibel increase can mean a huge jump in sound
Decibels use a logarithmic scale, not a ruler-like one. A 10-decibel increase means sound intensity becomes ten times greater, which many people hear as…
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Astronauts return from orbit slightly younger
Orbiting fast makes an astronaut’s clock tick a little slower than clocks on Earth, while being higher up in weaker gravity makes it tick a little faster. In…
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A “journey” once meant just one day
A journey was once about the distance someone could cover in a day: the Old French journée meant a day’s work or travel. The same daily root appears in…
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Saturn V launches shook seismographs
A seismograph can record a Saturn V launch because it measures shaking, not earthquakes specifically. The rocket’s engines sent powerful sound and ground…
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Your marble countertop began as limestone
Underground heat and pressure make limestone’s calcite crystals rearrange and grow into larger crystals that interlock. As they grow, they can wipe away the…
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Cartesian coordinates map endless worlds
A game does not need a separate picture for every possible place a character can go. It gives the character coordinates—numbers for position along three…
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Hydrogen peroxide naturally decays into water and oxygen
Hydrogen peroxide slowly breaks apart into water and oxygen, and light, heat, or tiny contaminants can speed the process. That’s why it often comes in an…
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Pilgrims were once simply strangers abroad
The old root of “pilgrim,” peregrinus, meant a foreigner or traveler; the word later narrowed to someone journeying to a holy place. Leave home and cross…
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Retroviruses permanently splice directly into host genomes
HIV does not just leave a set of instructions lying around: it converts its RNA into DNA and uses integrase to weave that DNA into the host cell's genome.…
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The Sun is covered in geysers of superheated gas
The Sun’s bright surface has a busy border: slender jets of gas repeatedly shoot upward into its outer atmosphere. These spicules carry hot material thousands…
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Earth's quasi-moon won't leave its neighborhood
Kamoʻoalewa loops near Earth because it circles the Sun in almost the same time Earth does. From our moving viewpoint, its path seems to curl around us, even…
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Stationary mantle plumes melt passing tectonic plates
Imagine a hot spot in the mantle as a nearly stationary blowtorch beneath a moving plate. As the plate slides over it, a volcano forms, gets carried away, and…
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Chocolate's stimulant is caffeine's milder cousin
Theobromine is one reason chocolate can have a stimulating effect. It’s related to caffeine but generally milder, and cocoa-rich chocolate tends to contain…
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Humans share ancient genes with baker's yeast
Yeast and human cells use some of the same genes to divide. Those instructions guide the machinery that copies a cell and splits it in two; evolution has kept…
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A hyena isn't a kind of dog
Hyenas belong to their own family, Hyaenidae, despite the dog-like outline. The family even includes the aardwolf, a much smaller termite specialist. Similar…
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Why smoke rings can travel across a room intact
A smoke ring stays together because it’s moving air shaped into a spinning doughnut. The air curls around the ring’s path and carries the smoke along, making…
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Lichen is a survival pact between fungus and algae
A lichen is a partnership: the fungus builds a protective body, while algae or cyanobacteria inside use sunlight to make sugars. The fungus provides shelter,…
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Software ports act as invisible doors for traffic
A single computer can run several network services, so incoming data needs an address beyond “this machine.” Port numbers provide that last bit of routing:…
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Why Mars time is just long enough to disrupt your sleep
A Martian day runs nearly 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, so rover teams who follow Mars time must keep moving bedtime later. That small daily shift…
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Some mushroom spores can wait years for another chance to grow
Researchers testing spores from mushroom-forming fungi found that dark spores of some species remained viable for at least 2.8 years, while light spores…
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