Life's Little Mysteries

The most common culprit is found in most homes.

Brazil nuts and cashews are crunchy and small, so why aren't they nuts?

While officially lawless, settlers usually weren't all that wild.

For these gregarious animals, 'alone time' is a fantasy.

Sea level changes are not happening uniformly across Earth's oceans. Here's why.

Encryption tech can be either hardware or software.

Hypothetically, an implanted embryo could be older than the woman who gives birth to it.

There's some people in southern Africa who might not be immigrants, scientifically speaking.

You probably learned this at school.

Here's how much snow is officially needed to call a Christmas "white."

The first fax machine used telegraph lines and was patented 33 years before Alexander Graham Bell's famous first phone call.

Meowing is a tool to get you to do their bidding.

Can we harness natural and human-made carbon traps to help us slow climate change?

Body size and diet might impact how much sleep mammals need.

What took out the trilobites, whose fossils are found all over the world?

It was either because New Year's Day used to be March 1 or because the Romans used to have a 10-month calendar.

Some species last longer than others, but what's the average?

You can argue for the British, Persians, Romans, Mongols or pretty much any empire you want.