Today I found out that parrots name their chicks. Scientists have known for a while that, in addition to saying things like “Polly want a cracker” (see Bonus Facts below) to entertain humans, parrots appear to vocalize their own names. What was a mystery until a few years ago was if those names were innate, meaning the chicks teach other […]
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Today I found out about Ranavalona I, the Mad Queen of Madagascar. Ranavalona I started out in life as a girl named Ramavo. Born in 1788 in Madagascar, she had humble origins as a commoner’s daughter. When her father learned of a plot to murder the future king, Andrianampoinimerina, he told his master and the plot was foiled. As thanks […]
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Susan K. asks: Why do nuclear bombs make mushroom clouds? This phenomenon all comes down to a little something called the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, and by extension, convection. I’ll begin with the somewhat longer, but less geeky explanation before descending once again into extreme nerdery. It all starts with an explosion that creates a Pyrocumulus Cloud. This ball of burning hot […]
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Today I found out about the fascinating tale of Belle Gunness, “The Lady Bluebeard,” who is thought to have murdered her husbands, her children, and a couple dozen more people during her lifetime. You probably remember Bluebeard, the title character in the French folk tale by Charles Perrault, which you might have stumbled across in a fairy tale book or […]
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Myth: The Candirú fish can swim up your urine stream if you pee into the Amazon. If you’ve never heard of the Candirú, also known as the pencil fish, the toothpick fish, the vampire fish and the fish that SWIMS INTO YOUR PEE HOLE, Google any of those names above (yes, even that last one, but maybe not at work). […]
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Among those who use recreational drugs, Bill Murray is something of an icon, having played several pot-smoking characters over the years, including the cannabis-loving sea captain Steve Zissou from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and noted drug user Hunter S. Thompson in Where the Buffalo Roam. So, was Bill Murray actually arrested for transporting Mary Jane, or was this story just […]
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It is a sad truth that Native Americans suffer from alcoholism at rates far higher than those of other ethnic groups. While many causes likely contribute to this problem, some of those most commonly espoused, including lack of prior exposure to alcohol and genetic predisposition, are oft-repeated misconceptions. In fact, well before Europeans began to colonize the Americas, Native Americans […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Tang was Not Invented for the Space Program In fact, Tang was actually invented by chemist and occasional playwright William A. Mitchell in 1957 while he was working for General Foods. General Foods introduced Tang to the public in powder form in […]
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Immense, stretching up to nearly 70 feet long and weighing over 50 tons, the sperm whale is the seventh largest animal, and the largest with teeth, in the world. Prized for centuries because of its oil and the almost supernatural ambergris it creates, the sperm whale today remains vulnerable. And although we have hunted and studied this leviathan for well […]
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Myth: Doctors are bound by the Hippocratic Oath. A binding agreement, as much a social contract as Social Security or Medicare, the traditional Hippocratic Oath holds those who swear to it to a strict code of professional and personal conduct. Contrary to popular belief, though, most doctors never take this oath, and, actually, most of us are probably glad they […]
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Absent from the visible spectrum and neither a wave nor a particle, the color pink is, for many, a scientific enigma: how can a shade that doesn’t even appear in the rainbow exist? The answer lies in color theory. The Primary Colors: RGB Unlike art production (see below), when it comes to eyesight (and video production), the primary colors are […]
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Luke asks: Why when I squint does it help me see things clearer? Squinting causes two reactions that help you visualize the world around you in better detail. First, it changes the shape of our eye, allowing light to be focused better. Secondly, it decreases the amount of light that is allowed to enter the eye. Light coming from a […]
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Jay asks: When/How did the Cold War start and finish? The Cold War was the geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR, that started in 1947 at the end of the Second World War and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. The Cold War was marked by continuous rivalry between […]
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On an autumn evening, October third to be exact, in 1849, a middle-aged Edgar Allan Poe was found wandering the streets of Baltimore, Maryland in a delusional, hysterical state. Unkempt, dirty, with “vacant eyes” and in someone else’s clothes, the writer was admitted to Washington College Hospital unable to explain what had happened to him. At five am on October […]
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Today I found out that Welch’s Grape Juice started out as a substitute for sacramental wine. You’ve probably heard about Jesus turning water into wine, but Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch is a lesser-known drink magician who developed a way to turn something that would have been wine into a non-alcoholic version of the drink, in an attempt to make an […]
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Today I found out why school buses are yellow. An estimated twenty-six million students in the United States alone are transported to school every school day via bus—over half the student population in the country. While school buses in countries outside of North America usually look like any other buses, North American school buses are distinctive for their yellow colour. […]
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In 1975, George Lucas was casting for his upcoming sci-fi film The Star Wars (name later changed to simply Star Wars). After a joint casting session with Brian De Palma, who was looking to hire actors for his new horror movie Carrie, Lucas was able to cast many of his principal actors. He decided on two young no-names, Carrie Fisher […]
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Today I found out about the origin of the phrase “in the limelight.” Today it means “at the centre of attention,” but back in the day “in the limelight” meant, well, being in the limelight. “Limelight,” which is also known as “calcium light,” was used as stage lighting for years after being discovered by Goldsworth Gurney in the 1820s. Gurney […]
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