Fact-based Nature Did It First
A Moth's Eye Taught Screens and Solar Panels to Stop Reflecting
The eyes of a moth are covered in bumps far too small to see, and copying them helps screens, lenses and solar panels shake off their glare.
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Fact-based Nature Did It First
A Desert Beetle Taught Engineers How to Drink From Fog
In the Namib Desert a small black beetle stands on its head at dawn to catch fog on its back, and engineers have been borrowing its trick ever since.
Fact-based Nature Did It First
A Termite Mound Taught a Building in Zimbabwe to Cool Itself
In the middle of Harare stands a big office and shopping centre with no ordinary air conditioning, designed after a long look at the tall earth towers that termites build.
Fact-based How It Started
The Shopping Trolley Began as Two Folding Chairs
The first one was a pair of wooden folding chairs on wheels with a basket on top, and shoppers refused to push it so firmly that the shop had to hire people to demonstrate.
Fact-based Nature Did It First
A Kingfisher Taught Japan's Bullet Train to Be Quiet
Japan's fast trains made a loud bang every time they left a tunnel, until engineers gave one a long nose shaped like the beak of a diving kingfisher.
Fact-based Weird Facts
You Cannot See the Great Wall of China From the Moon
It is one of the most repeated facts in the world, and it is wrong: from the Moon the wall is invisible, and even from orbit it is so hard to spot that astronauts argue about it.
Fact-based Nature Did It First
A Humpback Whale's Bumpy Flippers Taught Fan Blades a New Trick
The long flippers of a humpback whale are lined with knobbly bumps along the front edge, and when scientists tested them in a wind tunnel, the bumps turned out to be worth copying on fans and turbines.
Fiction Animal News — Fiction
Beavers Apologise for Unannounced Overnight Roadworks
The stream was three metres wide on Monday evening; by Tuesday morning it was a pond, the footpath was underwater, and nobody had been consulted.
Fiction Animal News — Fiction
Ants Complete Bridge Three Days Ahead of Schedule
The crossing was built out of the workforce itself, opened to traffic before it was finished, and will be dismantled by walking away.
Fact-based Weird Facts
The Eiffel Tower Is Taller in Summer
Iron expands when it warms, so the tower grows by 12 to 15 centimetres between a cold winter day and a hot summer one, and its top leans away from the sun while it does it.