What Is This? Discover's Server Room?
08.10.2010 Hint: First it flopped. Then it megaflopped.
by Andrew Grant
What is This? A Rejected "Phantom of the Opera" Mask?
Hint: It's actually something you might have lying around the house. 08.02.2010
What Is This? Whipped Petroleum?
Hint: It makes your hard drive work and also makes pretty colors in the sky. 05.18.2010
What Is This? A Bouquet of Glass Flowers?
Hint: Its tannin content can poison horses, and the flower-like things are actually hairy appendages. 04.28.2010
What Is This? A Long, Lost Painting by Joan Miro?
Hints: John Glenn had one on his historic flight. The colors were added to distinguish distance from the camera. 03.08.2010
What is This? A Glowing, Cave-Dwelling Organism?
Hint: It's actually a lot closer to home than some exotic cave. 02.18.2010
What Is This? Abstract Expressionism?
Hint: These plates cover a creature that's flat and round—hence its name. 12.08.2009
What Is This... A Hi-Tech Pin Cushion?
Hint: There are a lot fewer of them now than there were a few years ago. 11.18.2009
What is This? A Bioluminescent Mushroom?
Hint: It's actually not on the ground, nor in the oceans, but up in the sky—way up in the sky. 10.21.2009
What Is This? Seashells in a Tar Pit?
Hint: It's hard as granite, strong as steel, and has been used for sword grips and shoe soles. 10.05.2009
What is This? Spirograph 2.0?
Hint: It represents a best-selling piece of literature. 08.24.2009
What Is This? A Close Look at Pocket Lint?
Hint: It dates back to 6th-century China but never really caught on until the mid-1800s, when it was introduced in its packaged, modern form. 06.19.2009
What Is This? A Stony, Bloody Battlefield?
Hint: It's related to the rose and can put the "white" back in your pearly whites. 05.06.2009
What Is This? A Piece of Rainbow Rock?
Hint: To forensic technicians it's a valuable timer; to medical doctors it's a defense against infection. 04.25.2009
What Is This? A Dirty Sheep?
Stay away: these poofy blobs are actually quite deadly. 03.09.2009
What is This? A Windshield's Worst Nightmare Come True?
It may look like a worthless rock, but it can be encrusted with diamonds or used to find black gold. 02.05.2009
What is This? A Psychedelic Place Mat?
Actually, you'd be more likely to see this pattern in your wine glass. 01.14.2009
What is This? The Innards of a Daisy?
It's not a flower, but it does get its nice looks from photosynthesis. 12.23.2008
What Is This? A Papier-Maché Piñata?
There's no candy hidden in these, but they do hold other secrets. 11.05.2008
What Is This? A Psychedelic Peacock?
10.07.2008
What is This? The Surface of Mars?
Not quite—but some people pretend it is. 09.03.2008
What Is This? The World's Tiniest Pickup Sticks?
Hint: It was originally developed to treat hypertension and angina. 08.01.2008
What is This? Video Game Soccer Balls?
Not quite, but you will find plenty in a locker room. 07.03.2008
What Is This? A Diseased Reptile?
Here's a hint: You probably ate some at breakfast. 06.02.2008
What Is This? A Toy Set for a Microscopic Child?
Here's a hint: It's part animal, part vegetable, and a smidge mineral. 05.05.2008
What Is This? An Extra from Yellow Submarine?
The "devil's darning needle" hunts by sight. 04.02.2008
What Is This? A Field of Micro-Volcanoes?
These growths may look like little volcanoes, but they are are nothing of the sort. 03.02.2008
