FACT CHECK

How Many Spaces Should There Be at the End of a Sentence?

The question of whether you should put one or two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence elicits strong reactions on both sides.

Is It True That Elephants Never Forget?

While it may be an exaggeration, there's more truth to the adage than you might realize.

Is it OK to Shower in a Thunderstorm?

A reader wrote in to ask, “Is it safe to shower in a thunderstorm? Were my parents messing with me?”

How Effective is the Eye Black that Athletes Wear?

Sometimes it’s literally a glob of grease, other times it’s a synthetic sticker. We’ve all seen baseball and football players with the black rectangles under their eyes on sunny days, which is thought to help reduce the sun’s glare and allow athletes to b

Do Men and Women Feel Temperature Differently?

Men are from Mars and insist on turning up the air conditioning; women are from Venus and always complain of being cold. In a world striving for gender equality, is there something holding us back from liberty and comfortable temperatures for all, or is i

Why Do Electrical Towers Have Different Colored Blinking Lights?

Do Loose Lips Really Sink Ships?

Does a Refrigerator Make a Good Faraday Cage?

Are Wolves Really Howling at the Moon?

Will McGough answers today's Big Question.

How Do Whales Hold Their Breath for Such a Long Time?

It's not only because they have huge lungs.

Can We Determine the Sex of a Dinosaur?

Do Lemmings Really Run Off Cliffs to Their Death?

This long-lived myth actually has its roots in Hollywood trickery.

How Many Spiders Do You Really Swallow in Your Sleep?

Depending on who you ask, ingested creepy crawlies can vary from three, to eight, and even zero.

Can Animals Really Anticipate Natural Disasters?

For centuries, anecdotal stories have circulated about animals possessing some primal sixth sense that alerts them to an imminent natural disaster, but does science back it up?

Why Do Black Shirts Get Hot in the Sun?

No doubt most of us have heard that black and other dark objects are more absorbant and white and light objects are more reflective, but let’s start out by clarifying just what’s being absorbed and reflected.

What is the Most Complex Chinese Character?

Chinese characters are made up of strokes. Learning to write them involves not only learning where all the strokes go, but also the order in which they are supposed to be written and the direction of each individual stroke (left to right, up to down, etc.

Why Did Egyptian Pharaohs Wear False Beards?

Pharaohs were normally meticulous shavers, according to most archaeologists and historians. So why did they wear false beards while eliminating real ones?

What Do Chechens Have Against Russia?

The Boston Marathon bombing suspects are ethnic Chechens. Did their homeland's plight help radicalize them?

How Did Caesarean Sections Get Their Name?

Named after the great Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, yet he was not the first baby born by the procedure.

What Do Those Recycling Symbols and Codes Mean?

Earth Day is here again, serving as an annual reminder of the need to reduce, reuse, and recycle our way to a better planet.

Why Are White People Called Caucasian?

It goes back to German anthropologist Friedrich Blumenbach.

Can Stress Really Cause Hair Loss?

People have long been known to willfully pull out their own hair owing to anxiety, but it’s widely believed that chronic stress can cause inadvertent hair loss as well.

How Can US Citizens Legally Travel to Cuba?

Musical power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z jetted down to a tropical and somewhat-forbidden destination last week for their fifth wedding anniversary: Cuba. Because of travel restrictions to the country, the couple’s trip raised the eyebrows of some U.S. lawm

What's the Real Origin of "OK"?

It's amazing that we ever got along without "OK." But we did. Until 1839.

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