Facts that sound made up. Every one with a source.
Short, surprising and checkable. Browse by topic, start with the ones people cannot stop repeating, or follow a rabbit hole from one fact to the next. Seven of these land in the app every morning.
Browse by topic
The ones people repeat
The most surprising facts in the library, by the score the app uses to pick a morning.
- Cleopatra is closer to the Moon landing than the pyramids.History
- A 1994 Caribbean Cup rule made golden goals count double, so Barbados deliberately scored an own goal to force extra time.Sports
- A male anglerfish merges with his mate. Permanently.Ocean
- A 61-year-old potato farmer in wellington boots won Australia's 875 km ultramarathon in 1983.Sports
- A headless chicken lived for 18 months.Animals
- Your colour printer hides its serial number on every page.Tech
- That same chemist had already solved another problem by adding lead to petrol.Science
- Researchers implanted a fake childhood memory in 1 in 4.Psychology
- A six-second drum break from a 1969 B-side became the backbone of hip-hop, jungle and drum and bass.Music
- Roughly 8% of human DNA came from ancient viruses.Human Body
- Sensitive instruments are still built from steel salvaged off warships sunk before 1945.Ocean
- A conman sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap.History
Fact of the day
One fact, the same for everyone, new every day.
See today’s factFact packs
Eight facts that belong together, in the order they make sense.
- The Longitude Problem
Eight facts, each caused by the last — from a fleet wrecked on the rocks to the satellite in your pocket.
8 facts - A Pond in Massachusetts
One man cut ice from a lake in 1806. Follow the consequences and you arrive at a hole in the sky.
8 facts - The Failed Malaria Cure
A teenager ruins an experiment over the Easter holidays. Eight steps later, medicine learns how to aim.
8 facts - Everything Was Once a Whale
Streetlights, margarine, explosives, perfume. Eight facts tracing what the world used before it found substitutes.
8 facts
Rabbit holes
Short chains where each fact leads to the next.
- FoodFood that won't die4 steps · Follow the rabbit hole
- PsychologyMemory is a liar4 steps · Follow the rabbit hole
- AnimalsOlder than trees4 steps · Follow the rabbit hole
- OceanThe crush zone4 steps · Follow the rabbit hole
- Human BodyThe self-eating brain4 steps · Follow the rabbit hole
- ScienceThe unkillable3 steps · Follow the rabbit hole
- SpaceVenus is broken4 steps · Follow the rabbit hole
- HistoryYour timeline is wrong5 steps · Follow the rabbit hole