Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Why Amazon employees once worked at door desks
Because why pay for actual ergonomic furniture when you can foster a toxic culture of extreme corporate frugality early on? In the 1990s, Bezos famously…
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Why an oxygen tank can become a missile in an MRI room
Taking metal into the scanner room is a fatal mistake. The superconducting magnets are thousands of times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field and will…
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Kevlar began as a tire experiment
Bulletproof vests owe their existence to an impending gas shortage. Stephanie Kwolek was searching for a strong, lightweight fiber to replace steel in radial…
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The zero-calorie fat that came with a warning
The dream of zero-calorie fat turned into a nightmare for digestive tracts everywhere. This synthetic chemical tasted great but passed through the human body…
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That hologram on your card is not a picture
That shiny dove on your plastic isn't a flat picture. It is a three-dimensional interference pattern physically stamped into metal foil, meaning the image…
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How dead grass helped invent artificial turf
Houston's Astrodome was an architectural marvel with one fatal flaw: plants need sunlight. After painting dead dirt green out of sheer embarrassment, they…
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Why lab diamonds can seem inferior despite matching natural ones
Mother Nature is messy, and perfection is suspicious. Lab-created gems are chemically identical to natural ones but lack the tiny structural defects, meaning…
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Theremins make music without anyone touching them
Waving your hands frantically in the air is usually a sign of distress, but here it produces eerie sci-fi noises. Antennas sense the proximity of your hands…
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The coffee-pod inventor regrets creating them
Convenience comes with a mountain of regret. The creator of the ubiquitous single-serve coffee pod publicly admitted he feels terrible about the invention…
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A wrong resistor helped invent the pacemaker
A tiny mistake revolutionized cardiology forever. A researcher reached for a resistor to complete a circuit for recording heartbeats, grabbed the wrong size,…
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Why duct tape was once called duck tape
During World War II, the military needed a waterproof adhesive strip to seal ammunition cases. It was made with a cotton duck cloth backing, which soldiers…
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When musicians’ unions tried to ban synthesizers
When artificial instruments first gained traction, traditional players panicked. Unions argued that these electrical contraptions would put orchestra members…
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What airport body scanners use instead of X-rays
Despite the initial panic about intense X-ray exposure, modern airport portals use basic millimeter-wave technology. It reflects low-level frequencies off the…
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Autotune began as a search for underwater oil
Pop music's most infamous vocal crutch comes straight from the fossil fuel industry. An acoustic researcher realized the exact same mathematical formula used…
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Ads had to convince women that sweat was shameful
Getting people to buy antiperspirant took massive psychological manipulation. Early 1900s ad campaigns had to aggressively convince women that their perfectly…
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Crocs began as boating shoes
The ultimate contemporary fashion crime was purely utilitarian. The lightweight, floatable foam clogs were designed specifically for slick boat decks, which…
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Superglue once sealed battlefield wounds
Before it was gluing your fingers together by accident, it was saving lives in the jungle. Medics sprayed the fast-acting cyanoacrylate directly onto massive…
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Why Geiger counters click
That terrifying ticking sound in post-apocalyptic movies is just basic physics. Invisible radioactive particles pierce a sealed cylinder, momentarily turning…
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Early breathalyzers made drivers blow up balloons
Drunk driving enforcement used to look like a terrible party trick. Suspects had to inflate a football-sized balloon, and the trapped air was then pumped…
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Your memory-foam mattress began as pilot protection
Your incredibly comfortable mattress started out as a shock absorber. It was formulated in the 1960s to keep test pilots from being brutally pulverized during…
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Why night vision is green
The iconic neon hue of covert ops isn't a technical limitation. The phosphor panel could technically be other colors, but human eyes can differentiate more…
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Gore-Tex began as stretched-out Teflon
Waterproof yet breathable jackets sound like magic, but it's just chemistry abuse. By rapidly stretching heated polytetrafluoroethylene, they created a…
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The first drones were built as target practice
Unmanned flight wasn't born out of a desire for aerial pictures. Militaries in the 1930s built early radio-controlled planes specifically so bored gunners…
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The material that makes objects look flat black
Welcome to the void. This material traps 99.96% of visible light, meaning if you stare at a 3D object coated in it, your brain just registers a terrifyingly…
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