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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Food Science4 min read Why a wet steak won't brown: boiling water caps the surface at 100 °C Put a wet steak in a hot pan and it goes grey and steams. Pat it dry and it forms a dark, savoury crust. The pan is… Physics4 min read Why a boat's wake is always a 39° V: Kelvin's wedge Behind every boat spreads a V of ripples, and it is always about 39° wide, whether the boat crawls or speeds. Lord… Biology5 min read Why a gene can vanish by pure luck: genetic drift Two versions of a gene start at 50% each. Neither is better, yet in a small population one will vanish by pure chance… History5 min read How a beam with no date gets one: tree rings and crossdating A beam from a ruined house has no date on it, but its rings do. Trees from the same region share the same wide and thin… Maths4 min read Why random bounces pile up into a bell curve: the Galton board Every ball in a Galton board makes the same blind choice at each peg: left or right, a coin flip. Yet drop enough of… Earth & Space4 min read Why a cannonball fired hard enough never lands: Newton's cannon and the orbit Fire a cannonball horizontally from a mountaintop and it lands some distance away. Fire it harder and it lands farther…

Categories

01 BiologyCells, bodies, evolution and everything that grows. 9 breaks 02 ComputingThe ideas inside the machines we use all day. 7 breaks 03 Earth & SpacePlanets, weather, oceans and the sky above them. 8 breaks 04 EconomicsPrices, incentives and why markets do what they do. 6 breaks 05 EngineeringHow things are built, and why they don't fall down. 6 breaks 06 Food ScienceThe chemistry happening in your kitchen. 8 breaks 07 HistoryThe decisions, accidents and people that shaped now. 9 breaks 08 LanguageWords, grammar and how people make meaning. 8 breaks 09 MathsPatterns, chance and the numbers hiding in everyday things. 7 breaks 10 MindPsychology, perception and the quirks of the brain. 6 breaks 11 Music & SoundVibrations, harmony and why some sounds feel right. 8 breaks 12 PhysicsForces, light, time and the odd behaviour of the very small. 8 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.