Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
How games change music without a pause
Composers use transition music to carry a village melody into a dungeon score as players cross an area boundary, avoiding an abrupt change or silence.
Discover more
Why space telescope images start in black and white
Telescopes capture separate exposures through color filters, then combine them to create a color image. The result draws on multiple filtered views rather…
Discover more
The first drone delivery brought popcorn
Amazon’s UK demonstration delivered both an Amazon Fire TV device and a bag of popcorn to a man named Richard.
Discover more
The first Laserdisc movie made viewers flip the disc
The early Jaws LaserDisc release used sides holding about 30 minutes of video, so the feature stretched across multiple sides. Viewers had to turn over or…
Discover more
How former military pilots found work crop-dusting
After the Great War, former military pilots found work flying low over fields and spraying chemicals on insects, helping save local peach harvests.
Discover more
Twitter began as the vowel-free twttr
The founders chose the spelling because the domain name was available and vowel-free text-message shorthand felt fashionable at the time.
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.
Why training an AI model can take months
Training runs can take months because they require enormous amounts of computation; an error in the dataset may not become apparent until the run finishes.
Discover more
The tiny garage-door motor has a massive helper
The torsion spring above the door stores energy as it twists, then releases it to do about 90% of the lifting.
Discover more
Why your phone's charging port fills with lint
Pocket fluff gets into the open charging port and compacts at the back, eventually forming a barrier that can block the connection.
Discover more
Polycarbonate is a shatterproof plastic shield
Its impact resistance makes it useful for riot shields and eyeglasses, but polycarbonate can still dent, scratch, or warp.
Discover more
Why Tupperware lids burp
Pressing the flexible lid forces out air and helps create a tight seal, which is why it pops when released.
Discover more
Sony argued that a PlayStation 2 belonged in the computer tax category
The distinction mattered at customs: different product classifications carried different import duties. Sony challenged the European classification in court,…
Discover more
Your thumb scrolls about 300 feet a day
Across social media, dating apps, and recipe pages, those tiny swipes add up to roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty.
Discover more
The nuclear reactor that drains its own fuel to stay safe
The fuel is dissolved in liquid fluoride salt, and a freeze plug can melt if the reactor overheats, letting the mixture drain into underground tanks. The…
Discover more
Why power lines sag on hot days
Electric current heats the metal, and summer temperatures add to that heat, making the lines expand and hang lower. If a line reaches a tree branch, it can…
Discover more
Digital ticketing platforms crash during every major release
Popular ticket releases can overwhelm platforms with surges of fans and automated scalper bots, causing waiting-room errors and outages.
Discover more
Rainbow tables store millions of precomputed encryptions
They let attackers compare stolen password hashes with precomputed hashes of common words instead of testing each guess from scratch.
Discover more
Enigma was built for banks, not war
Scherbius pitched the machine to banks and post offices to prevent industrial espionage, but its high price kept buyers away until the German military adopted…
Discover more
How satellites turn without using fuel
Electromagnets inside the craft interact with Earth's magnetic field, creating torque that slowly turns the satellite without burning fuel.
Discover more
A delivered text is not the same as a read text
An SMS delivery report can confirm that a message reached the receiving side, but ordinary SMS does not provide the same read status as some chat services.…
Discover moreEmail's @ sign solved a very small naming problem
Ray Tomlinson needed a separator between a person's username and the computer receiving the message. He chose a keyboard character people weren't using in…
Discover more
A permanent blockchain record can point to a missing file
Some entries store only a link or reference to an image held elsewhere. The ledger can preserve that reference while the server hosting the image disappears.…
Discover more
WebRTC protocols allow browsers to communicate directly
It can send audio or video directly between browsers, avoiding a central media server and reducing delay when a direct connection is possible.
Discover more
Steve Jobs didn’t want the iPhone to have apps
Jobs initially wanted iPhone users to rely on Safari web apps rather than native third-party apps, partly to avoid poorly made software. His team eventually…
Discover more