Cringeworthy paper cuts aside, the realm of pain is packed with freaky facts. There is the horror of the world’s most noxious bush, why flesh-destroying bacteria really hurt, and the family that cannot be hurt. Agony has a sweet side, too. Some pain feels good, and then there is a walk more popular (and crippling)

Governments and businesses often commission studies to determine the dangers of a new or existing product. Governments also fund studies before passing new laws. However, this becomes a problem when the results of the study differ from what the business or government expected. When this happens, they might withhold the results and pretend it never

The body is an accumulated wonder of parts fine-tuned by nature to perform precision tasks. Venture past the usual facts, and things tend to get interesting. In recent times, unknown body parts have turned up in fossils and living creatures, ranging from cute to creepy to deadly. Doctors have grown things in strange places and

Whether we refer to the act of living or to all sentient beings in this world, life has always been a difficult concept for humans to understand. Even when life has preceded us on this planet for 3.5 billion years—and we ourselves have roamed Earth for plenty of millennia—there are many questions about it that

Millions of people across the globe wake up each morning to brighten their day with a delicious bowl of crunchy flakes or chewy oats with milk. Cereal is an American breakfast favorite, a fact made clear through television ads, commercial jingles, and the wide variety of textures, shapes, and flavors it comes in, even necessitating

Why do modern-day humans appear so drastically different from apes when ape species don’t look all that different from one another? Fifty years ago, the mainstream scientific consensus said that our ancestors went from living in trees to hunting on the savanna. Then fossil evidence challenged what we thought we knew. In the Great Rift

Most speeches follow an entirely conventional pattern. They are often self-congratulatory, bombastic, and, let’s face it, boring. However, it pays to listen closely because there are times when even an ordinary speech can take a sudden turn and leave the audience wondering whether they heard correctly. Some speakers, given an opportunity to have their say,

The beauty of origami appeals to the eye as well as the mind. Designs using paper can yield both detailed sculptural works of animals and flowers. They also employ powerful mathematical principles. Since the 1960s, modern engineering and design have been able to harness both the beauty and the power of origami techniques to introduce