Mental Floss

ALL STORIES

Your lungs expel carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor every time you exhale.

Taking in oxygen to power your whole body is just one part of your lung function. Altogether, your lungs are a highly efficient machine—and they do a lot more than you might think.

Jordan Rosenfeld
Powerful winds fuel the Palisades and Eaton fires in the Los Angeles area.

Meteorological organizations have strict naming protocols for tropical cyclones and hurricanes. Not so for wildfires, which can end up being named for the local dump.

Nick Keppler










Grab your magnifying glass.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

Ellen Gutoskey








A mob outside the White House during Andrew Jackson's first inaugural reception, 1828.

The inauguration of a new U.S. President is a day of pomp and ceremony, of solemn oaths and dignified celebrations. But things don’t always go as planned.

Tony Dunnell


See if you can decipher this twisted tune.

It’s time to play Tune Twist, where we translate the lyrics of popular songs into multiple languages and then back into English. Can you figure out what the song is, or who performed it?

mentalfloss .com


A man checking out Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘The Sea of Ice.’

From post-battle landscapes to cold weather fun, the events that occurred during frosty temperatures have led many an artist to pick up their brush and get painting.

Jane Alexander