A pitcher tries to throw a ball past a batter.
AP Images/Eric Gay
In baseball, a pitcher can throw a ball that seems to curve away just as it crosses the plate. How do they do it? It’s all about aerodynamics.
The remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer captures images of a newly discovered hydrothermal vent field in the western Pacific.
NOAA
In some places, the ocean is almost 7 miles deep. Scientists exploring the ocean floor have found strange sea creatures, bizarre geologic formations and records of Earth’s history.
Give yourself time and you can see in the dark.
Anton Watman/Shutterstock.com
Just the tiniest bit of light can let you see in the ‘dark.’ Here’s how your eyes do it.
In the future, people may be able to go to Mars.
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com
The first Martian might just be a human being.
For many older people, today’s music goes in one ear and out the other.
Shutterstock.com/photograph.kiev
Music doesn’t get objectively worse over time. So why do older generations scoff at each new top 40 hit?
Clifford Berry stands by the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
Courtesy of Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives
The first computer, named the ABC, was built at Iowa State University. But for a long time, few had heard of it.
School segregation was the law of the land in the U.S. during much of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com
School integration is often thought of as something that took place in the 1960s. But the first Black student to desegregate a school by court order was an Iowa girl named Susan Clark in 1868.
Pardon me!
Gelpi/Shutterstock.com
Oh! Excuse me! Please pardon my sphincter, esophagus and throat.
It’s a simple word with a strange history.
Andrii Oleksiienko/shutterstock.com
The word ‘OK’ has only been around for 180 years, but it’s become the most spoken word on the planet.
Have you ever wondered why U.S. money is green?
Yulia Grigoryeva/Shutterstock.com
The color of American money goes back to the British colonies.
The world’s smallest frog can fit on a dime.
E.N. Rittmeyer et al. (2012)
Scientists have identified the world’s smallest animal – for now. It could be possible smaller creatures exist that have not yet been discovered.
Hummingbirds flap their wings 800 times per minute.
Dino Hans Farnese/Shutterstock.com
How do hummingbirds drink sugary nectar and not get sick? Don’t they need a balanced diet to stay healthy? Do they eat anything else?
Those worksheets might not do much for a child’s grades.
mirtmirt/Shutterstock.com
How much homework kids should do is a subject of great debate.
Scratching is a natural behavior for cats.
noreefly/Shutterstock.com
Have a cat who just loves to scratch? Declawing is a major surgery that comes with serious long-term side effects – and it might not solve the problem anyway.
Fighting fire during training session.
Yutthaphong/Shutterstock.com
What exactly is inside those red fire extinguisher canisters, and does it work better than water?
Researchers pour a barrel of hagfish into a holding tank aboard a research vessel about 20 miles off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
AP/Steven Senne
Hagfish have been called the most disgusting creatures in the ocean. But what are they?
A male Olive-backed Euphonia (Euphonia gouldi ), photographed in Costa Rica.
Andy Morffew
Birds spend a lot of time and energy singing, but they don’t do it the same way in every season of the year. And some can’t sing at all. What’s the purpose of birdsong?
People worked for healthy teeth long before nylon brushes hit the market.
Mila Davidovic/Shutterstock.com
People have probably always wanted clean and healthy teeth. What they historically used to achieve dental hygiene might surprise you.