Category: fun facts

fun facts

How humans lost their tails

October 6, 2021

Finally, some answers! “A new study suggests that a single genetic mutation helps explain why monkeys have tails, while apes and people do not.” | learn more

fun facts

Damnatio memoriae

October 6, 2021

We know that history is written by the winners. But remember also that sometimes the new winners erase what the old winners wrote. | learn more

fun facts

14 design secrets.

September 26, 2021

Why are movie theater curtains red? Why are airplane windows rounded? Answers to these burning questions, and more! | learn more

fun facts

The boiling river in the Amazon.

September 26, 2021

“When Andrés Ruzo was just a small boy, his grandfather in Peru told him a story with an odd detail: There is a river, deep in the Amazon, that boils.” | learn more

fun facts

How we found the giant squid

September 26, 2021

“Humankind has been looking for the giant squid (Architeuthis) since we first started taking pictures underwater. But the elusive deep-sea predator could never be caught on film. Oceanographer and inventor Edith Widder shares the key insight – and the teamwork […]

fun facts

Tyler Cowen is the best curator of talent in the world.

September 19, 2021

He runs a little-known grant program called Emergent Ventures. In just one field: “Tyler has identified talent either earlier than or missed by top undergraduate programs, the best biotech startups, and the best biotech investors, all without any insider knowledge […]

fun facts

Women’s pockets are inferior.

September 19, 2021

“There are few things more frustrating than collecting your belongings only to realize that the pockets in your pants are too small to hold them. Or worse, the fabric designed to look like a pocket is merely for decoration and […]

fun facts

What is Wikiality?

September 13, 2021

The term was coined by Stephen Colbert in 2016. It’s, “a version of facts which is agreed to be true, but which may not coincide with objective reality.” | learn more