Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why Does an Empty House Sound Different?
Without carpets, curtains and sofas to soak it up, sound bounces off bare walls and floors for longer, and you can hear the difference the moment you walk in.
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Cosmic Questions
Tiny ponderings about a very big universe.
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Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Do Plants Get Bored?
A houseplant spends its life in one pot, but it is far from idle: plants sense light, gravity and even touch, and can switch on touch-response genes within minutes.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why Does a Room Look Different in a Photograph?
A photo records everything from one fixed point, while your eyes see only a small area sharply and your attention picks out what matters, so the picture rarely matches what you saw.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Do Fish Know When It Is Raining?
Rain fills the water with sound, but much of that sound is pitched far higher than many fish can hear, so the answer is less obvious than it seems.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why Do We Blow on Food That Has Already Gone Cold?
Blowing really does cool hot food, through convection and evaporation. On soup that is already lukewarm, it does almost nothing, and we do it anyway.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why Is the Last Stair Always the One That Gets You?
Stumbles on stairs cluster at the first and last few steps, and the reason has more to do with what your body expects than with your legs.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why Do We Whisper Around Very Old Things?
Nobody puts up a sign asking you to lower your voice in front of a thousand-year-old tree, and yet almost everybody does.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why Does a Sandwich Taste Better When Someone Else Makes It?
You used the same bread, the same butter and the same cheese, and theirs is still unmistakably better, which suggests the flavour is not kept in the sandwich.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Does Time Move Slower in a Waiting Room?
The clock ticks at the usual speed, but psychologists explain why waiting and boredom make every minute feel stretched.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why the Universe Keeps the Lights Low
If the cosmos is packed with billions of glittering stars, why does the night sky opt for a cozy, pitch-black blanket instead of a blinding neon glow?