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Why the same sound is a b to English ears and a p to Spanish ears Say "bat" and "pat". The only physical difference is a tiny delay between your lips opening and your vocal cords buzzing, about 12 milliseconds for an English… Language3 min read4 Oct Why you hear bass from a speaker too small to make it: the missing fundamental Your phone speaker is far too small to produce a deep bass note, yet you still hear the bass. The trick is that pitch is not a frequency in the air. It is a… Music & Sound3 min read3 Oct How a Bloom filter says "definitely not" using just a few bits How can a computer check whether a word is on a huge list using only a few bits per entry? A Bloom filter flips a handful of switches for every word you add… Computing3 min read3 Oct Every eye has a hole in its vision, and your brain paints over it Every one of your eyes has a hole in its vision, about ten Moons wide, and you have never seen it. It is where the optic nerve leaves the retina, a patch with… Mind3 min read3 Oct Why a 660-tonne steel ball swings to keep Taipei 101 still Skyscrapers sway in the wind, and gusts that match the tower's own rhythm can make it sway more and more. Taipei 101's answer is a 660-tonne steel pendulum… Engineering4 min read3 Oct Why people bid more than a dollar for a dollar: Shubik's escalation trap Auction a dollar bill with one twist: the second-highest bidder pays their bid too. It sounds harmless, yet in 1971 economist Martin Shubik reported that… Economics3 min read2 Oct Egg yolk sets at a lower temperature than the white. So why is it runny? An egg yolk sets at about 70 °C. Most of the white needs about 80 °C. So why does a soft-boiled egg come out with a firm white and a runny yolk? Because… Food Science4 min read2 Oct Why water drops last longer on a hotter pan: the Leidenfrost effect Flick water onto a warm pan and it sizzles away in a second. Make the pan hotter, past about 193 °C, and something odd happens: the drop pulls into a bead… Physics5 min read2 Oct How honeybees give directions by dancing in the dark A honeybee that finds good flowers can tell her sisters where they are, inside a pitch-black hive, by dancing. She runs in a straight line while shaking her… Biology5 min read2 Oct 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 door to door asking one question: where did… History5 min read1 Oct 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 about half a minute and the jaws slam shut… Biology5 min read1 Oct 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 secret. Then, in 9th-century Baghdad, the… History5 min read30 Sep