Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
Pollen relies entirely on wind for blind fertilization
Many plants just violently eject their genetic material into the breeze, hoping it lands on a compatible mate. This reckless reproductive transport strategy…
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How planes land in strong crosswinds
When aggressive crosswinds threaten to blow a plane off the runway, pilots simply adapt. Commercial aircraft are designed with incredibly resilient landing…
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The space shuttle landed like a giant glider
Once the shuttle dropped out of orbit, its engines were completely useless. The pilot had exactly one chance to nail the landing on a runway because there was…
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When helicopters rained cash on crowds
When extreme wealth meets questionable public relations, things get weird. eccentric millionaires and unhinged marketing executives have historically…
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Military tanks steer by stopping treads on one side
When your vehicle weighs sixty tons, delicately turning the front axle is an entirely laughable concept. Tanks lack any form of traditional steering…
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Cells aggressively swallowing nearby objects
Sometimes the only way to move a package inside is to literally wrap your entire self around it. Endocytosis involves a cell membrane folding inward to engulf…
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China’s trains follow painted lines instead of rails
It's essentially a bus with delusions of grandeur. China's Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit (ART) system uses a network of sensors and cameras to follow painted…
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American street names are heavily duplicated across the map
There are thousands of roads with the exact same mundane tree names because originality is totally dead. City planners universally gave up and just heavily…
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A dropped flask helped invent the laminated windshield
Sloppiness saves lives. In 1903, Édouard Bénédictus knocked a glass flask off his desk. Instead of shattering into deadly shards, it simply cracked and held…
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Why submarine control rooms turn red
To transition from blinding internal fluorescent lights to looking out into the pitch-black abyss, crews bathe their control rooms in harsh red light. It…
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Buenos Aires has Latin America’s oldest operating subway
While most people associate historical subways with London or New York, the Subte in Buenos Aires has been shuttling grumpy commuters since 1913. Some of the…
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The reckless sport of doing backflips on pogo sticks
Taking a children's bouncing pole and launching yourself upside down over concrete requires a special level of reckless confidence. Enthusiasts modified the…
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You can walk faster than oil moves through pipelines
Despite transporting millions of barrels across continents, oil and water in pipes crawl along at a pathetic three miles per hour. You could literally…
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Auckland commuter ferries bypass heavy urban bridge traffic
The massive harbor bridge is a notorious choke point. Smart commuters just abandon the asphalt entirely, taking a smooth boat ride across the water while…
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Copenhagen has more bikes than people
If cars are the apex predators of American roads, bicycles are the tyrannical overlords of Denmark. Copenhagen has aggressively prioritized two-wheeled…
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Why trains struggle with even gentle hills
Despite their monstrous diesel-electric horsepower, trains are defeated by mild geographic inclines. The efficiency of a train relies entirely on smooth steel…
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Venice gondoliers need hundreds of hours of training
It turns out you can't just put on a striped shirt, grab a stick, and charge tourists a hundred euros to row them through raw sewage. The gondolier guild is…
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Paragliding is like taking a lawn chair into the sky
Instead of hanging vertically from a tight harness, a paraglider pilot sits in a comfortable fabric seat. You are basically dragging a lawn chair into the sky…
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Some helicopters hide emergency floats in their landing gear
Operating heavily over deep swamps or lakes without pontoons is a massive gamble, so some models pack high-pressure floats inside the landing gear. At the…
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Buzz Aldrin held communion on the Moon
Taking a literal leap of faith, Buzz Aldrin decided the lunar surface was the perfect spot for a private religious ceremony. Shortly after landing the Apollo…
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The Wright brothers’ first flight was shorter than a 747’s wingspan
It really puts into perspective how rapidly humanity evolved from 'wood and fabric' to 'sky-polluting metal tubes'. Orville Wright's first successful flight…
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Bumper cars were invented to make crashes safer
Nothing prepares you for adult driving quite like getting aggressively rear-ended by a nine-year-old at a local fair. Oddly enough, the bumper car was…
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Why bagpipes can cause trouble at airport security
It turns out even the British have a line they won't cross when it comes to terrible noise. Because bagpipes were historically carried into battle by Scottish…
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Why passports still use holograms
We love holographic seals because they look futuristic and official. But in reality, high-end counterfeiters cracked holographic printing years ago. They…
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