Almost nobody looks at a dark night sky and thinks it requires explanation. It is dark because the sun has set, which seems sufficient.
It is not sufficient, and noticing…
Nearly every effect below comes from one of three things: a curved surface that guides sound, a shape that focuses it, or a surface that refuses to reflect it at…
A compass needle points north. Almost everyone knows this and almost nobody knows what it means.
It does not point at the North Pole. The geographic North Pole is a…
There are a small number of biological rules that hold across every vertebrate: a spine, a heart, and haemoglobin to move oxygen around the body.
The last one has exactly…
Card games spread along the same routes as trade and armies, mutating at every border. Here are seventeen, and what is known about where each came from.
1. Whist -…
There is a case to be made that the most consequential object of the twentieth century is a corrugated steel box.
It is not an impressive thing to look at.…