Life's Little Mysteries

Here's how crude oil becomes plastic.

It's open to debate, but a lot of the 19th century was spent in open revolt.

Here's why snow is white and not clear like water or ice.

High-speed cameras show that flies' modified hind wings help with their speedy takeoffs.

Dating is hard, even for scientists.

No one really knows, but there are a few educated guesses.

It depends on your definition of monotheism.

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.