Fashion has changed quite a bit from our hunter-gatherer days, when the most fashionable thing someone could wear was anything at all. What we wear now has less to do with adapting to the environment and more with self-expression and what everyone else is wearing. Modern fashion has been a long time in the making,

The European Middle Ages lasted a thousand years, running roughly from AD 500 to AD 1500. A lot of history took place during this time, but textbooks often fail to reconnect the living with the past as much as artifacts do. Some items prove that certain things never change—people cheated at games, carried deadly weapons,

The 19th and 20th centuries were a period of unprecedented change in human history. In 1807, the Napoleonic Wars were raging; in 2007, smartphones were becoming a thing. No other era in human history comes close to matching this rate of change. And in no other place was this change faster than in Europe. As

Known as the human form of mad cow disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is an incredibly rare yet terrifying illness. Scientists currently do not know as much as they would like to about this condition. But what they have discovered is fascinating and has led to increased health regulations for cattle meat production. For example,

It’s an oft-repeated notion: Everything on Earth has already been explored and how awesome it would have been if we had been born in the Age of Exploration. In a consistently shrinking world due to technology and advanced research tools, that does seem to be true. After all, why would we be thinking about going

There are countless reports of compassionate mailmen who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, helping residents in their time of need. Be it a kind gesture, a listening ear, or saving someone’s life while on the job, such stories echo the essence of what it means to be a good person. The

Ask any kid in almost any country, and they’ll tell you who Big Bird is. But how well do we really know our feathered friend? On the surface, he’s a lovable character from Sesame Street who stands 249 centimeters tall (8’2″)[1] and sports orange feet the size of snowshoes. But there are many sides to

Some modern technologies were invented to work or look one way but ended up getting modified. At other times, they were invented for particular purposes but were ultimately used in different ways. This is true for several of today’s technologies—from our phones to USBs, air conditioners, sirens, and blockchains, which form the backbone of cryptocurrencies

For millions of people throughout the world, the university dormitory is an integral part of the higher education experience. Some have fond memories of their dorm rooms; others think of their dorms as one step above a prison cell. Either way, nobody can doubt that “interesting” things tend to happen in dorm rooms. Here, in

With the recent release of the series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix, there was a tinge of backlash regarding her comments about holding onto too many books. She recommends only having 30 at a time. Of course, memes appeared overnight defending book-hoarding with a stunning ferocity. This compulsive craving to collect and hoard

Roughly 150,000 men of Jewish descent fought in Hitler’s army. While their families back home were being corralled into ghettos and sent off to death camps, these men were in Poland, France, or Russia, spreading the fascist system that was killing their people across Europe. It’s hard to understand, but many Jewish Germans signed up

Lakes are liminal spaces. The world divides between what is above and what is below. They can also be spooky places where waves behave oddly, and it is easy to imagine all manner of things concealed in the gloomy depths below. While lakes may scare some people away, others actively go to them to search

True crime has burst into popular culture. People have always had a morbid fascination for the macabre, but tales of murder and fear had generally been confined to a smaller audience. Now, true crime is out in the open, and so are its fans. Its popularity can be partly explained by the arrival of the

We often expect a drug prescription when we visit a doctor. However, physicians seem to be gradually shifting from solely recommending the use of medications to prescribing other unconventional things. These bizarre prescriptions could be issued alone or to supplement a medication or some other treatment. These newer treatments include playing, cycling, singing, visiting museums,

As children, we’re put to sleep with the help of tales designed to ease us through the darkness and into the wide space of our imaginations. Growing up, these stories have developed with profound messages designed to push us in the right direction in life. But while the magic may never cease to glisten, these

The shifting sands of the Sahara have swallowed animals, people, and entire cities over eons. It is the largest hot desert in the world, and those who become lost in its endless sandy plains are likely to never be seen again. In the ancient world, whole armies were known to march off across it, never

Named after Charles Ponzi, Ponzi schemes come in all shapes and sizes but have certain elements in common. The details of the supposed business are often vague or mysterious. They promise high rates of return for little risk and often come with a deadline to panic investors into putting in money before they properly consider

History is not the same everywhere. How else can we explain historical accounts of an event differing from nation to nation? Since the 20th century, several governments have realized that they could rewrite history to their own benefit. And they have been doing just that. Governments promote these edited versions of history through their schools

In many ways, ancient Rome was the birthplace of modern Western culture. It’s easy to see ourselves reflected in its culture and customs, with its focus on liberty and the rule of law. In other ways, though, ancient Rome was more alien than we can imagine. For one, their addiction to bloodthirsty sports in which

A modern wonder is imaging and our ability to share pictures globally within seconds. People alive today can surf the web and see the most incredible scientific sights without ever having to step inside a laboratory. Pictures showing freshly solved mysteries and violent things in space are fascinating, but they pale next to unusual world

Despite our differences in opinion and cultures, there’s one thing just about everyone can agree on: Sex is amazing. No matter how much we may enjoy it, though, it’s one of the most mysterious aspects of evolution. Scientists have been trying to answer why we have sex at all for quite some time now,[1] as

There are times when all of us open our mouths before we have engaged our brains. Unintentionally, we can hurt other people’s feelings or show ourselves and our employers in a bad light. It may be because we are caught off guard or we are having a bad day. In most cases, a timely apology

Even after humans fought for centuries to escape the restrictions of this world and thus be able to venture into the cosmos, we finally decided to look back. So, ironically, Earth has been the primary focus of our observations from space. Although scientists have obtained hundreds of thousands of photographs of planets, galaxies, and other

It’s no secret that couples often speak their own language with one another. When two people become close, they develop their own inside jokes, codes, and nicknames. When we see others doing this, especially in public, it can quickly go from cute to sickening. However, cutesy nicknames and baby talk between two people in love

Many in China like to claim that their country has seen 4,000 years of continuous civilization. In truth, new evidence hints that Chinese civilization may even be older than that. For those in the West, Chinese history is either completely unknown or only vaguely identified. However, in many mandatory Western civilization courses, professors like to

The Manhattan Project is famously known as the United States-led endeavor which successfully created the first atomic bomb. The success of the Manhattan Project led to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 and the total surrender of Japan, ending World War II. The project was extremely complex and dangerous, even causing the deaths

Sheep leap through the minds of insomniacs, and for some, that is about as interesting as these creatures get. However, sheep are not just farm animals waiting to become mutton. They are at the cutting edge of lifesaving technology and revealed a solid clue about a mysterious and devastating autoimmune disease. Studies aside, sheep stories

There are few names more notorious in US history than that of John Wilkes Booth. Booth, as most Americans know, is the assassin who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln at the tail end of the American Civil War. It occurred on the night of April 14, 1865, as Lincoln, his wife, and two guests

The glorious age of knights, chivalry, and kingdoms is inherently fascinating to us, and nothing represents it better than the art of heraldry. Nearly everyone has a passing interest in heraldry. Haven’t we all Googled our own “family crest” at some point? We know that knights had a coat of arms which they wore on

More than a few alarmists will tell you that artificial intelligence and robots are going to rule the world in the future. Eventually, we can expect them to do everything from washing our clothes to fighting our wars, with little to no human help except for teaching them how. With machine learning, they may not