Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
How one-way mirrors actually work
Interrogation rooms strictly entirely exactly entirely use perfectly entirely optical illusions strictly completely entirely purely perfectly rather exactly…
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Why giant cinema screens have tiny holes
If you walk incredibly close to a premium massive theatrical screen, you will violently realize it looks exactly like Swiss cheese. Because modern cinematic…
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Defibrillators don't restart a flatlined heart
Despite what television doctors passionately scream, you cannot electrically jumpstart a heart that has flatlined. Defibrillators are completely useless on a…
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How a thermos keeps coffee hot for hours
Keeping your incredibly hot coffee entirely miserable perfectly relies on aggressively utilizing the void. A typical thermos features two internal steel walls…
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Why fire extinguishers spray powder
When the kitchen bursts into flames, you are basically putting it out with cake ingredients. Most standard dry chemical extinguishers are filled with…
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Water filters use highly porous burned carbon
Making tap water taste slightly better strictly relies on the magic of excessive surface area. The black specks inside a typical pitcher filter are activated…
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Induction cooktops heat the pan magnetically
If you turn on an induction stove and slap your bare hand on it, absolutely nothing will happen. Beneath the glass is a coil of copper wire blasting…
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The first plastic you couldn't melt again
Before Bakelite, early plastics like celluloid were highly volatile and would literally combust if they got too hot. Bakelite changed the world because it was…
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Why the first solar panels went to space
When solar cells were first invented, they were so laughably expensive that absolutely nobody on Earth could justify bolting them to their roof. The only…
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The Incas invented freeze-dried potatoes
We act like astronaut ice cream is the height of modern ingenuity, but the ancient Incas beat NASA by centuries. By leaving potatoes out in the freezing…
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The creepy dummy in the first TV broadcast
The momentous occasion of proving pictures could be transmitted through the air wasn't a profound speech or a sweeping landscape. Inventor John Logie Baird…
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Your linoleum floor is made from oil and cork
Despite looking like generic plastic, true retro linoleum is actually a strange, all-natural concoction. An inventor noticed the tough, rubbery skin that…
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Some pesticides grew out of chemical-warfare research
The spray you casually use to protect your backyard tomatoes shares an uncomfortably dark family tree. Many early synthetic agricultural bug killers,…
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How the Titanic helped inspire sonar
The tragic sinking of an 'unsinkable' luxury liner sent inventors scrambling to ensure a giant block of ice would never ambush a ship again. By blasting…
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What makes Pop Rocks crackle
Despite the urban legends claiming this candy will blow up your stomach, the reality is just clever chemistry. The crackling effect comes from trapping highly…
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Graphene was peeled from graphite with sticky tape
To isolate a miraculous one-atom-thick layer of carbon that is hundreds of times stronger than steel, scientists didn't use billion-dollar lasers. Two…
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Some dance floors turn footsteps into electricity
Some nightclubs took the concept of kinetic energy to the absolute extreme. By placing specialized crystals under the floorboards, every heavy footstep…
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Why wind turbines aren't birds' biggest threat
People love to vilify giant spinning wind turbines as apex predators of the sky, but the statistics paint a different picture. Your innocent suburban glass…
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Why we call it tin foil when it is not tin
We still casually call it 'tin foil,' but wrapping your leftovers in actual tin would ruin your night. Early 20th-century companies switched to aluminum not…
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Tape dispensers are weighed down by extremely cheap sand
You might assume the solid, heavy base of your trusty office tape dispenser is made of dense cast iron or thick premium plastic. In reality, manufacturers…
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The inventor of FM radio died after patent battles
Creating the crisp, static-free frequency modulation we use today was an agonizing curse. Edwin Armstrong revolutionized broadcasting, but entrenched…
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Spandex was born from wartime rubber shortages
Before the 1950s, if you wanted stretchy clothing, you had to wear actual heavy, hot rubber. Because rubber was strictly rationed for war efforts, chemists…
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How raw eggs are pasteurized without cooking them
You might wonder how you can sterilize a raw egg without accidentally making breakfast. By submerging the eggs in a very strictly controlled water bath, the…
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Nuclear power provides most of the electricity in France
While other countries constantly bicker about how to keep the lights on, France went all-in on splitting atoms during the 1970s oil crisis. They quietly…
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