Almost every unit of time you use is a measurement of something physical.
The day is the Earth turning once. The month is roughly the Moon going through its phases.…
Blood Types Were Discovered Over a Century Ago and Nobody Has Established What They Are Actually For
Most people know their blood type, treat it as a fixed personal fact like eye colour, and have never wondered what it is.
It is a molecule. Specifically, blood type…
The mechanism is usually the same: a word is used loosely, the loose sense becomes common, and the precise one falls away. Here are fifteen that travelled unusually far.
1.…
The useful way to read these is as solutions rather than as homes. Each one is addressing a specific physical problem, and the structure follows from the problem rather than…
In the 1970s, finishing the basement to create a "rec room" was a hallmark of the American home, a casual, kid-friendly, party-ready space separate from the formal living room upstairs.…
The recurring problem is the same everywhere: sleep appears to be necessary, and being asleep is dangerous. Almost every solution below is a compromise between those two facts. Here are…