How the Spanish Inquisition Worked
The idea of pious monks imbued with unbridled power and with a penchant for dealing torture and death is a scary one indeed, and one both Spain and the Catholic Church have tried to reconcile since th...
4 Mar 201443min
What happened at Kent State?
On May 4, 1970, four days of anti-war protests at Kent State University in Ohio culminated in the unthinkable when Ohio guardsmen opened fire on protesters, killing four students. How could this trage...
27 Feb 201438min
Termites: They Bore But They Aren't Boring
Their soft white bodies look creepy and, to be sure, they are, but termites are pretty amazing bugs. They build ventilation systems into their mounds, poop on their enemies and grow mushrooms. Learn a...
25 Feb 201441min
How Amputation Works
Amputation is one of the oldest surgeries and an even older punishment for crime, but it wasn't until the American Civil War and its 50,000 amputations that the procedure began to hit its stride. Lear...
20 Feb 201454min
How Salt Works
A Roman senator once said, "Mankind can live without gold, but not without salt." Right he was. The human body needs salt so much we have developed a taste for it specifically. But too much salt can b...
18 Feb 201442min
How Cave Dwellers Work
You know the cavemen, a race of human cousins who lived exclusively in caves? They didn't exist. Sure prehistoric hominids used caves sometimes but they lived in other places too. Luckily the time the...
13 Feb 201437min
Do objects or experiences make us happier?
Since Sartre classified things that make us happy into the categories of having and doing, science took up the investigation into materialism and experientialism. The results have been in for a while:...
11 Feb 201434min
How Sign Language Works
It wasn't until the was developed and despite its co-existence alongside English, a user would be hard-pressed to sign with a British person. Find out about the independent evolution of sign language ...
6 Feb 201444min
