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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History5 min read How one doctor's map traced a cholera outbreak to a single pump In 1854 most doctors blamed cholera on bad air. When it tore through Soho, killing hundreds in days, John Snow went… Biology5 min read How a Venus flytrap counts to five without a brain A Venus flytrap ignores the first touch. Brush one of its trigger hairs and nothing happens; brush a second within… History5 min read How a 9th-century scholar cracked secret codes by counting letters For roughly nine centuries after Julius Caesar, swapping each letter for another was a perfectly good way to keep a… Maths4 min read Why 23 people are enough for two to share a birthday Put 23 people in a room and there's a better-than-even chance that two of them share a birthday. That sounds wrong… Earth & Space4 min read Earth is closest to the Sun in January. So why is that winter? Summer can't be caused by being closer to the Sun: Earth makes its closest pass around 3 January and is farthest around… Language5 min read Why Spanish sounds faster than Vietnamese yet says just as much Listen to Spanish or Japanese and it seems to rush past; Vietnamese or Thai can sound almost unhurried. Yet when…

Categories

01 BiologyCells, bodies, evolution and everything that grows. 4 breaks 02 ComputingThe ideas inside the machines we use all day. 3 breaks 03 Earth & SpacePlanets, weather, oceans and the sky above them. 4 breaks 04 EconomicsPrices, incentives and why markets do what they do. 2 breaks 05 EngineeringHow things are built, and why they don't fall down. 2 breaks 06 Food ScienceThe chemistry happening in your kitchen. 3 breaks 07 HistoryThe decisions, accidents and people that shaped now. 5 breaks 08 LanguageWords, grammar and how people make meaning. 4 breaks 09 MathsPatterns, chance and the numbers hiding in everyday things. 3 breaks 10 MindPsychology, perception and the quirks of the brain. 2 breaks 11 Music & SoundVibrations, harmony and why some sounds feel right. 4 breaks 12 PhysicsForces, light, time and the odd behaviour of the very small. 3 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.