Awesome Learning

Let’s kick things off with a brief language lesson. An acronym is made up of parts of the phrase it stands for and pronounced as a word, while an initialism is a kind of acronym pronounced as its individual letters. With that cleared up, Mental Floss is here with 25 of the abbreviated phrases from “CAPTCHA” to “WD-40.”

Pretty much every living thing on our planet depends on the sun in one way or another. But what might happen if the Earth didn’t have our solar system to count on and was left out on its own? Kurzgesagt explores the horrible things that might happen to us if a star got too close and knocked Earth out of its orbit.

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If you’ve ever gotten gored by your adorable little kitty cat’s hook-like claws, you know how sharp they can be. Science educator Kyle Hill explains the biology behind cat claws, what makes them different from our fingernails, and how they manage to stay so razor-sharp.

Each of our bodies is teeming with trillions of bacteria at any given moment. Thankfully, these microscopic organisms generally work in harmony with our cells. But how did evolution prevent bacteria from becoming as big as a whale? Kurzgesagt explores this question in the latest episode of their Life & Size series.

You might assume that most people in the middle ages thought the earth was flat, but it turns out many of them already knew the earth was round. Mental Floss host Justin Dodd explores this misconception and a few others about medieval times.

We all know that bees make their honeycombs by creating nearly perfect hexagonal cells. But why is that they chose hexagons to do their building? CGP Grey looks into the power and strength of this basic six-sided form, especially when it comes to tiling efficiency.

With eight engines, nine wings, and room for 100 passengers, this early 20th-century flying machine was designed to be the first mass-passenger aircraft capable of transatlantic flight. Mustard looks back at the history of this unusual airplane, and what ended up being its downfall.

Christened in 1940, the S.S. America was a glorious oceanliner that could carry 1200 passengers in luxurious surroundings. But a series of events led the vessel to eventually being abandoned and becoming a rusted-out shipwreck. Bright Sun Films looks back at the unfortunate history of this once-impressive cruise ship.

There are a number of great American cars manufactured in Canada. In total, our neighbors to the North produced 2.4 million cars in 2019 alone. But for some reason, Canada no longer has any of its own major car brands. Donut Media digs into this puzzling question and attempts to provide some answers.

The speed of light is pretty darned fast, but given just how far the Earth is away from the Sun, its light doesn’t get here instantly. It’s Okay to Be Smart teaches us how it’s not just a simple math equation, but complex astrophysics explain how sunlight is much older than you’d think.

To celebrate the release of their Human Era Calendar for the year 12,021, Kurzgesagt looks to the distant future to imagine what it might be like for future archeologists as they attempt to reconstruct our present, along with the challenges we face figuring out our past.

While we’re perfectly content to use actual swear words, for many years, they’ve been off-limits for use in most public-facing entertainment. Vox looks back at how random punctuation marks became the universal symbol for so-called “obscene” words.

Despite the massive number of rodents alive today, none of them have horns. But millions of years ago, some did. The so-called “horned gopher” had a pair of bony protrusions on its head, making it look pretty silly if you ask us. PBS Eons explains their purpose, and how they might still be useful if rodents had them today.

It seems that distorted information and falsehoods are more common than the truth these days. But why is it that humans fall for such misleading information? TED-Ed speaker Joseph Isaac looks at one specific case where something treated as fact has been widely believed, despite the facts saying otherwise.

Potholed roads can be a major annoyance, or in severe cases, they can cause vehicle damage or accidents. Why is it that with all of the advancements in materials science, we still get roads with giant divots? Grady Hillhouse of Practical Engineering explains the uphill battle faced by transportation departments around the globe.