Curiosities
Why does a day have 24 hours?
Neither Earth nor science decided it: it was the ancient Egyptians and their fondness for the number 12. The curious history of why we split the day into 24 hours.
💡 Curiosities
Curiosities
Surprising facts and answers to curious questions.
Curiosities
Why is yawning contagious?
Seeing, hearing, or reading about a yawn can set off yours. Science links it to empathy and mirror neurons. Why it only happens with people we care about.
Curiosities
Where does the @ symbol come from?
Long before email, it already had centuries of history as a commercial unit. How the @ went from merchants to becoming the king of the internet.
Curiosities
Why can we sometimes see the Moon by day?
The Moon doesn't only come out at night. Why we sometimes see it in broad daylight, what it has to do with its phases, and why it isn't always where you think.
Curiosities
Why do our fingers wrinkle in water?
It's not that your skin soaks up water: it's your nervous system drawing those wrinkles. And science thinks they help you grip wet things better.
Curiosities
Why does spicy food feel hot?
Chili doesn't actually burn: it tricks your pain sensors. How capsaicin fools your brain, why it triggers pleasure, and why milk cools it better than water.
Curiosities
Why do planes leave white trails?
Those white lines in the sky are clouds of ice, not 'chemicals.' How contrails form and why sometimes they last and other times they vanish.
Curiosities
Why do we have fingerprints?
Unique, unrepeatable, and forever: why we have fingerprints, what they're really for, and why not even identical twins share them.
Curiosities
Why do we sneeze?
An explosive reflex that clears the nose at over 100 km/h. What triggers a sneeze, why the sun makes us sneeze, and why you can't do it with your eyes open.
Curiosities
Why is the sea salty?
The ocean's salt comes from the land's rocks, carried by rivers over millions of years. Why the sea is salty and rivers are not.