Life's Little Mysteries

Smelling salts are found in Victorian novels to rouse fainting women and on the sports field to possibly help athletes. But how do they work?

It's "knot" your fault that Christmas lights always get twisted.

Is the simplest explanation always the best one, as Occam's razor states?

Is Hanukkah eight days because of an ancient miracle that oil burned for that long? It turns out there's more to the story.

If you're at sea level, or you age more slowly or faster than someone at the top of Mount Everest?

"Living fossils" like Triops tadpole shrimps are believed to have rubbed shoulders with the dinosaurs, but which animal has been on Earth the longest?

There are two major theories as to why Christmas is celebrated on Dec. 25.

Clouds look light and fluffy, but they're surprisingly heavy.

Where does the first sunrise happen every day and which place sees the first sunrise of the New Year?

Pangaea was one of the largest continents in world history, but now it's broken up. So which continent today is the largest, and which is the smallest?

Does anyone have sovereignty over the moon? And can anyone buy it?

Krampus is a mythical creature who punished badly behaved children, according to myth.

There are two contenders for the world's largest squid, and both are giants.

Billions of years ago, wind, heat and the rotating Earth formed currents just as they're produced today — but their paths would have been wildly different.

Who actually wore togas, and what were they for?

The oldest known writing dates back more than 5,000 years. But who was the first author we know by name?

Human violence is in the news every day. But is violence innate in Homo sapiens?

Habits can be hard to break, but here are a few ways you can do it.

European eels make an incredibly grueling, mysterious migration to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.