Biology / Computing / Earth & Space / Economics / Engineering / Food Science / History / Language / Maths / Mind / Music & Sound / Physics

Step away.
Come back smarter.

Short, interactive explainers for your break from work. Read one in thirty seconds, dive deeper if you like, then get back to it.

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Economics4 min read Why a country that's worse at everything still gains from trade: Ricardo's comparative advantage How can a country that is worse at everything still gain from trade? Ricardo's 1817 England-and-Portugal example says… Food Science4 min read Why bread rises: yeast only inflates the bubbles your kneading put there Yeast doesn't blow bubbles into dough. It only inflates the ones your kneading already folded in. That means the number… Physics4 min read Why the sky is blue and the sunset red: Rayleigh scattering and the length of the air The sky is blue and the sunset is red, yet the sunlight is the same. Air scatters short blue waves about four times… Biology4 min read Why predators boom after the prey do: Lotka–Volterra and the Adriatic fish puzzle After the First World War, an Italian biologist noticed something odd in Adriatic fish catches: with less fishing, the… History4 min read How a stick's shadow measured the whole Earth: Eratosthenes, a well and 5,000 stadia Two sticks, one shadow and one distance were enough for Eratosthenes to size the whole planet around 240 BC. On the… Maths3 min read Why random dice rolls draw a perfect fractal: the chaos game and the Sierpiński triangle Pick three dots, then keep jumping halfway towards a randomly chosen one. It sounds like it should leave a grey smudge…

Categories

01 BiologyCells, bodies, evolution and everything that grows. 12 breaks 02 ComputingThe ideas inside the machines we use all day. 10 breaks 03 Earth & SpacePlanets, weather, oceans and the sky above them. 11 breaks 04 EconomicsPrices, incentives and why markets do what they do. 11 breaks 05 EngineeringHow things are built, and why they don't fall down. 10 breaks 06 Food ScienceThe chemistry happening in your kitchen. 12 breaks 07 HistoryThe decisions, accidents and people that shaped now. 12 breaks 08 LanguageWords, grammar and how people make meaning. 11 breaks 09 MathsPatterns, chance and the numbers hiding in everyday things. 10 breaks 10 MindPsychology, perception and the quirks of the brain. 10 breaks 11 Music & SoundVibrations, harmony and why some sounds feel right. 11 breaks 12 PhysicsForces, light, time and the odd behaviour of the very small. 12 breaks

How it works

30 Second Break is a collection of short explainers for curious people of every age. Each break is one idea you can read in thirty seconds, with an optional deep dive that has its own interactive design.

01
Pick a topic
Browse by category, or hit Random.
02
Read for 30 seconds
Go deeper if you have a few more minutes.
03
Back to work
One thing smarter than before.