Roger Bannister was the first person to break the 4-minute mile, a feat he accomplished while he was enrolled in medical school.

Understand distinctions between coffee types and other popular cafe beverages with this visual guide.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Light takes approximately eight minutes to travel from the sun's surface to Earth, but it takes thousands of years to reach the star's surface from its core—a distance more than 200 times shorter.

If the US government paid off its debt, it could disrupt the entire bond market, as Treasury bonds are among the most common bonds for investors and the majority of the national debt is in bonds.

Just as squeezing a grape causes it to bulge, the moon's gravity exerts an overall pressure that displaces water toward the opposite sides of Earth's equator, producing tides.

There are up to 100 trillion microbes in the gut, and maintaining the relative balance in this ecosystem is important for our health.

See where the 100 million barrels of crude oil the world consumes daily end up.

The US has discontinued a variety of different currency denominations over the years—including a $100K bill.

The world's largest waterfall is in the ocean and is more than three times the height of Angel Falls, the largest waterfall on land.

Explore interactive maps from fictional journeys, including 'The Odyssey,' 'Moby-Dick,' and more.

In 1962, the US detonated a nuclear weapon in space, which produced an electromagnetic pulse that disabled three low Earth orbit satellites and damaged electrical equipment in Hawaii.

On a cruise ship, the average person uses about 50 gallons of water a day, which is treated by bacteria and onboard filtration systems, then stored until the ship can legally discharge the wastewater.

The Panama Canal opened on this day in 1914, linking the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

According to the International Energy Agency, hyperscale data centers consume about as much electricity annually as 400,000 electric vehicles to provide 24/7 access to online applications, services, and information.

'And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans:' Hear Robert Kennedy's famous 1968 speech criticizing gross domestic product as the primary benchmark for American growth.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, contends that children are losing the ability to pay attention as they spend half their lives perusing social media content designed to hook them.

Explore how the most commonly used words in the English language have changed from the 1950s to 2023.

As part of the up to 15 pounds of seafood they consume daily, sea otters eat urchins that feed on kelp forests—helping preserve a source of shelter and food to over 800 species.

Prediction markets have been likened to the stock market—except instead of buying and selling shares of companies, users buy and sell "yes" or "no" on whether an event may happen.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted, either by a blockage (ischemic stroke) or bleeding when a blood vessel in the brain breaks and bleeds (hemorrhagic stroke).

NBA legend Magic Johnson turns 67 years old today. Read about his iconic showdown with Larry Bird in the 1979 NCAA final, which helped ignite the college basketball boom.

On this day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, creating a social safety net that now covers more than 70 million Americans.

Consider the logistical implications if you literally had all the money in the world.

With less than three months until the 2026 midterms, here are some tips from Pew Research on how to distinguish good polls from unreliable ones.

Streaming service Netflix's sound logo 'Tudum' was designed as a key sonic differentiator.

Examine this captivating animation 'building' a human—illustrating the roughly 40 weeks of fetal development.

Streaming service Netflix's sound logo 'Tudum' was designed as a key sonic differentiator.

Watch the many different civilizations around the Mediterranean shift power from the year 2500 BCE to 0 BCE in this animated map.

Plato's famous allegory of the cave is a metaphor exploring the value of truth over ignorance.

The tallest tsunami in recorded history was 524 meters (1,720 feet) high—taller than the Empire State Building—and occurred in Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958 after an earthquake dislodged a rockface into the water.

Miracle berries make things that normally taste acidic or sour, such as lemons, taste sweet, like sugar-coated candy, by binding a special protein called miraculin to taste buds.

In 1951, the small French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit is believed to have been overtaken by the fungus containing the psychoactive ingredient used to make LSD.

Today marks V-J day, the anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender that ended World War II in 1945. Watch the formal ceremony that took place later (Sept. 2) aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

The canine family tree traces how foxes and wolves are related to our beloved household pets, like poodles and dachshunds.

On this day in 1961, construction began on the Berlin Wall. The barrier separated East and West Berlin for nearly three decades, preventing East Germans from fleeing to the West and earning the nickname 'the Iron Curtain.'

'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' made its Hollywood debut on this day in 1939. The film itself was inspired by a drought experienced by author L Frank Baum.

See a map of the world's 25 largest stock exchanges, which had a total market cap of $106T as of 2023.

It's been 75 years since doctors took Henrietta Lacks' cells without her consent or knowledge in 1951 and used them for research, creating an 'immortal' cell line that's still used today—but modern policies and legislation around patient consent remain complex.

Peter Tuchman, who has worked on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange for over four decades and ranks among the most famous traders in history, is known as the 'Einstein of Wall Street.'

As of this week, more than 2,400 cases of measles have been reported in the US.

Taxi and ambulance drivers appear to have the lowest risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease out of 443 occupations, which suggests that constant real-time navigation work strengthens the hippocampus and may help protect against the disease.

See where your state ranked in an analysis of the best public school systems in the US.

In 1984, Bob Dylan reimagined himself as the front man of a punk band for a performance on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

The first Model T rolled off the line on Aug. 12, 1908. Watch someone operate the vehicle, described as 'driving a tractor with the soul of a sewing machine.'

Explore the full list of over 1,000 UNESCO World Heritage sites, broken down by country.

Explore the full list of over 1,000 UNESCO World Heritage sites, broken down by country.

The Aztec Empire ruled over 80,000 square miles of central Mexico for nearly a century—until a small band of Spanish conquistadors brought it down on Aug. 13, 1521.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Check out some of the best books that can be read in a single day, with titles from Han Kang, Denis Johnson, Muriel Spark, and more.