Science
Discover facts about science. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Science
Why we call them cells
The first cells Hooke saw were not bustling little factories—they were empty-looking compartments in dead cork. Their walls reminded him of monks’ small…
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The metal that sparks when scratched
Scrape ferrocerium and it sheds tiny fragments that ignite when they meet air. Those burning bits are the sparks—not metal simply glowing from friction. The…
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Mosses lack true roots and absorb water through their leaves
Moss takes in water across its surface instead of drawing it up through true roots. Its fine, rootlike rhizoids mostly pin it to the ground; they aren’t the…
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Pythagoras wasn't first to use his famous theorem
The right-triangle relationship now called the Pythagorean theorem was known long before Pythagoras lived. Babylonian and Indian mathematicians used it…
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Fault tolerance requires a massive honest majority
In a fault-tolerant network, the danger isn’t just a bad computer voting the wrong way—it may tell each group a different story. Many designs can handle this…
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Reality transurfing lets you select your dimension
Feeling as if you’ve stepped into a new reality can follow a real change in perspective. Your choices and reactions may shift, changing what happens in your…
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Why moving faster can make you shorter
A moving object looks shorter only when someone else measures it flying past. That measurement requires recording both ends at once, but motion changes which…
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Removing the air doesn't remove friction
Surfaces still make contact in a vacuum, where microscopic deformation and adhesion can resist sliding. In spacecraft mechanisms, contact can even lead to…
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A radioactive element can power remote probes
As promethium atoms decay, they release fast-moving electrons. A betavoltaic device catches those particles and turns some of their energy into electricity,…
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A handful of soil can hide a crowd of tiny worms
Nematodes live in the thin films of water between soil particles, feeding on microbes, plants, or other small organisms. Their size makes a busy habitat look…
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Bright light continues completely straight until blocked
Glass bends light when the light changes speed as it crosses into the material. A massive galaxy bends it another way: gravity curves the path through space,…
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Viruses may outnumber every grain of beach sand
Imagine counting every grain of beach sand, then discovering the estimated number of viruses on Earth is even larger: about one followed by 31 zeros. Many of…
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Hacker culture has roots in a model railway club
At MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, ingenious tinkering with complex control systems helped cultivate the meaning of a 'hack.' Members carried that…
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The monster hiding at the center of our galaxy
Astronomers worked out the mass of Sagittarius A* by tracking stars racing around an invisible point at our galaxy’s center. Their orbits revealed an object…
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Comets can smell like rotten eggs
Comets can release hydrogen sulfide, the gas behind rotten-egg odor, along with sharp-smelling ammonia. Scientists detect those gases around a comet and infer…
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Why cheetahs sometimes abandon their kills
A cheetah can win the chase and still lose dinner. Sprinting leaves it needing time to recover its breathing and strength before it can eat, and that pause…
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Empty space can help pull two metal surfaces together
At tiny separations, quantum fluctuations of electromagnetic fields produce a measurable force between conducting surfaces. Their boundaries change which…
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What nitric acid does to copper
Concentrated nitric acid can react with copper, turning the metal into dissolved copper compounds that color the liquid blue-green. The reaction also releases…
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Electrical grids must perfectly balance supply and demand
The grid’s frequency acts like a live dashboard for the balance between electricity supply and demand. Too much power makes it rise; too little makes it fall,…
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Fungi can mine nutrients from solid rock
Fungal threads spread across rock and release acids that loosen nutrients from its mineral surface. The fungus can then take up those nutrients without…
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Why male hippos spin their tails while defecating
A male hippo spins its paddle-shaped tail while defecating, flinging waste across the riverbank. Spreading the scent over a wider area leaves a territorial…
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How pythons squeeze prey with every exhale
A python can feel its prey’s heartbeat and adjust its coils instead of squeezing at full strength nonstop. When the animal exhales, its chest shrinks; the…
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Uranium occurs in the environment in mundane trace amounts
Small amounts of uranium are part of the natural mix in rocks and soil. Detecting it alone can’t tell you whether people caused contamination; you have to…
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Nickel contact triggers localized immune overreactions
A nickel rash can show up after the metal is gone because the immune response takes time to build. T cells recognize nickel ions and trigger inflammation…
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