Big Questions Answered, How and Why

There's ancient evidence for the custom of shaking hands, but did it mean the same thing then as it does today?

Getting grocery and convenience store items for $1 may seem like a good deal, but dollar stores use some tricky practices to keep profits high.

There's nothing better than a warm chocolate chip cookie. But how do the chips seemingly resist oven temperatures?

For one, dropping a stitch while knitting will probably upset you more than dropping one while crocheting.

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Two small but significant differences set your vegetable beef stew apart from your mom’s vegetable beef soup.

The term 'white elephant' has been used since at least the 1800s to refer to a less-than-desirable gift.

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Everyone knows to expect a partridge in a pear tree on the first day of Christmas. But when is that, exactly?

The differences between forests, woods, and jungles aren't exactly an apple trees to orange trees kind of comparison.

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If you’ve ever received a flu shot, you may have noticed that your upper arm is sore for a day or two afterward. Here’s why.

In "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs," Caitlin Doughty explains why human bones usually don't make a very good snack.

Much like Halloween itself, the practice of dressing up in costumes is the result of a hodgepodge of traditions from around the world.

Certain traits define the difference between colleges and universities. (And no, tuition isn't one of them.)

Trick-or-treating for candy on Halloween only became common a few decades ago, but the tradition's roots stretch back to ancient pagan celebrations.

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The terms 'concrete' and 'cement' are often used interchangeably to describe hard, gray building material, but there is a difference.

Do you feel tired everywhere but your own bed at home? The culprit may be a phenomenon known as conditioned arousal.

It may have done its most important work when it was attached to your umbilical cord, but it’s not completely useless.

Those black lines running through roadways are supposed to keep roads intact, but they can sometimes be dangerous.

Four hundred years ago, if you were a seafaring thief, the label that you received said a great deal—mainly about whoever it was doing the labeling.

Their small size separates both from many other tomato varieties, but what separates them from each other?

If your experience with bears is largely limited to reading Winnie the Pooh as a kid, you might think that these fuzzy mammals will do anything to get their gigantic paws on a jar of honey.

Discover the real reason why students get summers off each year, which contrary to popular belief, wasn’t because kids had to work on the family farm.