20 Things You Didn't Know About...

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Magnetism

The mystery of how to describe it, the mystery of where spin comes from, and the mystery of whether lightning makes rocks magnetic. 08.12.2011

20 Things You Didn’t Know About... Stress

How a broken heart can really break your heart, violent games can ease your stress, and the lowest-stress job around. 07.27.2011

20 Things You Didn’t Know About... Crystals

The ones inside comets forged by the Sun, the ones buried under Manhattan, and the "crystal" ones that aren't crystal at all 07.05.2011

20 Things You Didn’t Know About... DNA

IDing crooks from the DNA in their fingerprints, the 8 percent of our genome that came from viruses, and the plant that laughs at our puny genetic endowment. 06.13.2011

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Spiders

How spider venom can treat erectile dysfunction, dreadlocks can cure arachnophobia, and spider silk can be used as muscles for robots. 05.13.2011

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Kissing

Our unique human lips, the conquests that carried kissing, and how kissing makes men and women more like each other 03.19.2011

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Taste

Flavor-tripping, supertasters, trying food in the womb, and plenty more 02.10.2011

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Language

The one that dominates the Internet, the ones we learn in the womb, and the ones that are whistles 01.21.2011

20 Things You Didn't Know About... The Future

What happens at the end, when we contact the alience, and the Big Answers revealed 01.12.2011

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Teeth

The ones that give syphilis, the ones that grow in throats, and the ones that get implanted into eyes 11.29.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Nanotechnology

How it might kill us, how it might save us, and how it was used in the smallest ever marketing stunt 10.29.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Dogs

The first ones, the ones that share bacteria with people, and the ones that look like Groucho Marx 10.06.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Water

The water under the oceans, how your own hair can burn you, and more 08.10.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Viruses

The one with its own satellite, the ones that made you, and the Mama of them all 05.04.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Light

The first light in the universe, the light used to push spacecraft, and the light produced by kicking the head of a walrus. 04.09.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Digestion

#15: In which painful condition does your body literally start eating yourself from within? 01.07.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Computer Hacking

What's the connection between Steve Wozniak, the Pope, and Henry Kissinger? That's right, it's hacking. 01.05.2010

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sugar

We eat it, we love it, and it may have been a chemical precursor to life on Earth. 10.30.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Hurricanes

A typical hurricane releases some 600 trillion watts of heat energy, equivalent to 200 times the world’s total electrical generating capacity. 08.18.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Eclipses

07.30.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Movies

The first skin flicks, setting actors on fire (safely), the great bluff that turned into IMAX, and more. 06.03.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Tunnels

New York has a forgotten one, Texas has a $2 billion wasted one, and Switzerland's building the longest. 04.29.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Money

Interesting info-nuggets about all that stuff you recently sent to the IRS. 04.14.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Time

The beginning, the end, and the funny habits of our favorite ticking force. 03.12.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Television

A closer look at the boob tube on quasi-digital-switchover day. 02.17.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Fat

Body fat can kill you, keep you warm, or power your boat. 01.05.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Elections

Humans have a record of screwing up democracy, but we aren't the only species getting in on the act. 11.03.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Genius

The Nobel Prizes will soon be announced. How do the winners get so damn smart? 10.01.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Telescopes

From Galileo to the Hubble, viewing space has come a long way. 08.27.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sports Technology

How science makes modern athletes go higher, move faster, and stay safer. 08.14.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Oil

Learn more about the world's biggest fuel source—while it's still around. 06.28.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... The Summer Solstice

Galileo was forced to recant his astronomical theories on the summer solstice of 1633. 06.19.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Recycling

Happy Earth Day! Now help fix the planet. 04.22.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sex

And you thought you knew everything... 03.19.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Relativity

Galileo invented it, Einstein understood it, and Eddington saw it. 02.25.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Science Fiction

Even the biggest geeks can't know everything. 01.30.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Snow

You might as well understand the stuff that could soon paralyze your car. 12.12.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Gold

Anti-inflammatory, protector of astronaut eyes, and excrement of the gods 11.15.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Living In Space

Exploding boobs, toilet target practice, the second birth... 10.30.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... The Surgeon General

They weren't all the presidents' stooges. 10.05.2007

20 Things you Didn't Know About... Hygiene

Cleanliness is serious business; dirty hands killed a U.S. president. 08.20.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Mosquitoes

They use the signature buzz as a mating call. 07.23.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Galileo

Einstein's favorite scientist died an ardent Catholic. 07.02.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Nothing

There's more there than you think. 06.05.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Pencils

Erasing with bread crumbs, pencil as murder weapon, and more 05.14.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Robots

Modern robots can respond to emotion and the smell of fine wines. 04.02.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Bees

Undertaker bees, the queens who were called kings, how honey helps wounds... 03.08.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Movie Scientists

Frankenstein was tacked together on the silver screen, while Einstein was dismembered there. 02.23.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Skin

Flesh-based ID tags, people with no fingerprints, and more. 02.06.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Aliens

Where are they lurking, when will we find them, and will pictures of naked people impress them? 01.07.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Rats

Jack Black the royal rat catcher, Jacko the world-champion rat killer, rats who mate more than once a minute, and more 12.07.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents

LSD, gunpowder, Viagra, and the Incredible Hulk all have something in common. 10.30.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... The Nobel Prizes

The king who tried to kill the prizes, what goes through the minds of cockroaches as they watch Star Wars, and more. 10.03.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Death

Newsflash: we're all going to die. But here are 20 things you didn't know about kicking the bucket. 09.01.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Meteors

X-ray slaps, the Tears of St. Lawrence, and the fiddly asteroid/meteoroid/meteor/meteorite distinction 08.01.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Obesity

Money for getting squashed in your airplane seat, our country's fattest state, the Monster Thickburger, and more. 07.24.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sleep

The official world record for staying awake, possible killers lurking in our mattresses, a continent's war against naps, and more. 07.01.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Garbage

06.25.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Leonardo da Vinci

05.28.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Space Disasters

04.27.2006