The Fermi Paradox
Scientists estimate that there are over 100,000 intelligent alien civilizations in our galaxy alone—but we’ve never heard anything from any of them. Here are 13 possible explanations for why.
... Read More
Yearly Archives: 2014
The Blood Vessels in Your Hand
This real hand specimen, injected with a dyed plastic, gives a rare glimpse at our amazing network of blood vessels.
... Read More
The Titanic Compared With a Modern Cruiseship
The white ship is the Allure of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. The black ship is what the Titanic would look like next to the Allure.
... Read More
10 Absurdly Famous People You Probably Don’t Know Enough About
Here’s a brush-up on ten of the most famous people in history.
... Read More
Your Life in Weeks
4,680 weeks are all you have. Are you making the most of them?
... Read More
Traveling To The Third World Is Great And Also It Sucks
Traveling is a mixed bag. It’s great. And also it sucks.
... Read More
Stick Figure Puzzle
Wait But Why needs to downsize. Which stick figures will keep their jobs and which will be erased? A puzzle that will keep you busy for awhile.
... Read More
Stick Figure Puzzle – Solution
HINT 1 How would things play out if only one of the stick figures present had a messed up head? HINT 2 How about if there were two with a messed up head? On…
... Read More
Spending Profiles—More Info
Here’s the specific annual spending of our three profiles: LOW SPENDER 50 restaurant meals, $15 each – $750 total 50 takeout meals 25 bar drinks 25 coffee drinks No cab rides 10 valet 3 hotels…
... Read More
Everything You Don’t Know About Tipping
Whenever you’re not sure what to tip someone, you risk ending up in the dreaded Ambiguous Tipping Situation. This post is here to help.
... Read More
Watch Yourself Evolve From Cell to Human in 53 Seconds
Kind of mesmerizing…
... Read More
The Tiniest Castle
Brazilian artists Vik Muniz and Marcelo Coelho have gotten clever—instead of building castles made of sand, they’re painting castles on single microscopic grains of sand. I’m happy they exist.
... Read More
What Could You Buy With $241 Trillion?
If you combine every human’s wealth together, you get $241 trillion. Let’s see what that number looks like in cash, gold, potatoes, pizza, and tortoises.
... Read More
Why Sports Fans are Sports Fans
It might make absolutely no sense to care about the outcome of games between strangers who don’t care about you, but sports fandom matters to so many people—here’s why.
... Read More
Incredible Video Footage from 1906
I really love this video. It’s crazy that we can just watch 1906 people going about their day. That seems WAY too old a time to be able to do that. Also cool to see the earliest cars coexisting with horse-drawn carriages.
... Read More
Why is My Laptop On?
“Why is my laptop on?” is a much more complicated—and interesting—question than it seems to be.
... Read More
Energy for Dummies
An overview of the major types of energy in today’s world—what they are, how they’re used, and how big a role they play in things.
... Read More
Worldwide Prevalence of Circumcision
Prevalence of circumcision throughout the world. Very little rhyme or reason—Bangladesh and South Korea but nowhere else in those areas? Former Yugoslavia but nowhere else in Europe? I don’t get it.
... Read More
The Most and Least Expensive Cities
The 10 most and least expensive cities in the world.
... Read More
Animation Showing Global Internet Usage
Amazing animation showing internet activity throughout the world at different times in the day.
... Read More