Science
Discover facts about science. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Science
Polarization filters block specific light wave angles
Unfiltered light is a chaotic mess vibrating in all directions. Throwing up a polarized barrier acts like a rigid fence, aggressively blocking any waves that…
Discover more
Why frowning makes reading harder
If you furrow your brow while reading a simple instruction manual, your mind will suddenly decide the text is overly complicated. Facial feedback dictates…
Discover more
Vagabonds were historically just aimless wanderers
Today, a 'vagabond' sounds like a romantic, free-spirited explorer. Originally, it comes from the Latin 'vagari', meaning 'to wander'. It was essentially a…
Discover more
Quartz ranks as the second most abundant crust mineral
New Age crystal shops would have you believe quartz is an incredibly rare, mystical artifact. In reality, silicon dioxide is so absurdly common that it makes…
Discover more
Slate forcefully splits into perfectly flat rigid sheets
Thanks to millions of years of deeply aggressive underground compression, slate developed an incredibly useful flaw. It naturally fractures along utterly…
Discover more
Platonic solids are strictly limited to five variations
You can draw a regular two-dimensional polygon with any number of equal sides you want. But if you try to make perfectly symmetrical 3D dice using identical,…
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.
Earth is the odd planet out in its name
Humanity looked at Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, branded them with the epic titles of ancient mythological deities, and then named our own home…
Discover more
The dinosaur that was bigger than T. rex
While the T-Rex gets all the cinematic glory, Spinosaurus was out out there making it look completely average. This terrifying, sail-backed behemoth holds the…
Discover more
Software can break without anyone changing the code
Think your code is eternal? How cute. Unlike a fine wine, software ages like unpasteurized milk. As operating systems and surrounding digital environments…
Discover more
Why smudges help you escape a mirror maze
Getting lost in a hall of mirrors has less to do with the glass and more to do with your incredibly gullible brain. The illusion only works because humans…
Discover more
The volcano that has erupted for 2,000 years
Earning its reputation as a relentless geographical show-off, this fiery European peak has been continuously blasting out fountains of glowing rock for over…
Discover more
Why a holiday was once a holy day
Taking time off just to relax is a startlingly modern concept. The word 'holiday' is literally a mashup of 'holy day', indicating that the only valid excuse…
Discover more
A frog may vomit up its entire stomach
Next time you suffer from food poisoning, be intensely grateful you aren't an amphibian. When a frog eats something toxic, it uses its front legs to…
Discover more
The outside carousel horse really does move faster
Picking the horse on the outside edge of the carousel doesn't just give you a better view; it subjects you to entirely different physics. Because the outer…
Discover more
Zero knowledge proofs confirm secrets without revealing data
This cryptographic protocol lets one party prove to another that they know a specific value without conveying any actual information apart from the fact that…
Discover more
Why luminol glows blue at crime scenes
Luminol strictly exists to be dramatic. When it chemically interacts with an oxidizing agent—like the iron heavily present in hemoglobin—it immediately sheds…
Discover more
Some turtles breathe through their butts in winter
When the lake freezes over, turtles resort to biological desperation: breathing through their butts. Known as cloacal respiration, highly vascularized tissues…
Discover more
The poison that pretends to be phosphorus
It is a deadly game of elemental musical chairs. This toxic element looks incredibly similar to safe, essential phosphorus, completely tricking your cells…
Discover more
Comet tails consistently point away from oncoming solar wind
Logic dictates that a comet's tail should drag behind it like a cape in the wind. However, space doesn't care about your logic. The tail is actually blown…
Discover more
Why thorium needs help to keep reacting
Thorium is the underappreciated backup dancer to uranium that could actually save the grid. Unlike traditional reactor fuels, thorium cannot easily sustain a…
Discover more
Graphite conducts electricity strictly along flat planes
Despite being composed of the exact same basic carbon atoms as completely non-conductive diamonds, graphite eagerly allows electrons to heavily flow. However,…
Discover more
How giraffes keep blood from flooding their brains
Having a neck that absurdly long comes with a very serious risk of instant cranial explosion. To pump blood all the way up to a giraffe's head requires a…
Discover more
Law of Divine Oneness connects everything perfectly
Every single person, object, and event in the universe is supposedly linked by an invisible web of energy. This means you are technically cosmically connected…
Discover more
The red glow that revealed neon
Not satisfied with finding krypton, Ramsay kept chilling air and zapping the resulting fractions with high voltage currents. One of the leftover gases emitted…
Discover more