There is an assumption about mosaic that treats it as decoration applied to a finished surface — small pieces stuck onto a floor or a wall, like tiles.
That is…
There is a well-documented behaviour in animals that explains the entire history of trying to keep birds off crops, and it is almost never mentioned in that context.
The behaviour…
There is a widespread mental model of a kite that treats the string as a leash, restraining something that would otherwise escape.
That model produces a specific prediction: cut the…
There is a category of traditional building technique that looks primitive and turns out to be doing something subtle, and thatch is the clearest example available.
The appearance suggests a…
There is a category of discovery that arrives sideways, as the residue of an argument about something else entirely.
The argument concerned whether a space containing nothing could exist. The…
There is a useful question to ask about any everyday object: what did people do before it, and did they think they had a problem?
For most tools the answer…