Early 20th-century debates about horses with 'paranormal mathematical abilities' helped shape modern approaches to psychological research.

Meet Clever Hans, the 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations and read German

When Clever Hans was prompted with math questions, he responded by tapping his hoof to indicate his answers. Even a panel of experts found no indication of trickery in the horse's demonstrations. However, psychology student Oskar Pfungst found that Hans stopped tapping once a subtle cue on his owner's face told him to stop. The cues were so subtle that Wilhelm von Osten didn't even know he was giving them.

Lady Wonder, the horse with supposed clairvoyant powers

Lady Wonder became widely known as a horse that shared her special powers by spelling out words by using blocks with letters. She reportedly helped solve the case of a missing young boy while also offering advice and sports predictions.

Data suggests the typical horse produces over 12 horsepower—a unit of measurement for the rate of work done that was conceived as a marketing tool to communicate steam engine performance.

How Seabiscuit's DNA made him a winner

Seabiscuit's sudden success in the sport has been framed as a classic against-the-odds sports story. One Binghamton University molecular physiologist wanted to go a bit deeper, though, to see how much genetics played a role in the horse's legendary career. Using the horse's silvered hooves, his research team discovered that Seabiscuit's genotype was typically associated with late bloomers, a finding confirmed by the horse's track record.

Mathematicians often solve problems using wordless mental processes

It's a common technique among expert mathematicians, where thinkers rely on intuition, blurry perceptions and subconscious work—no writing, no formulas. The state is distinct from daydreaming, and often relies on sudden illuminations stemming from extended periods of subconscious reflection.

Researchers once thought Stonehenge functioned as a precise astronomical computer

In the 1960s, scientists used early computers to analyze the stone layout at Stonehenge, arguing it could predict eclipses and other celestial events. This BBC Sky at Night Magazine piece explains how the theory arose—and why scholars now doubt it.

One of Einstein's papers challenged quantum theory but helped confirm entanglement

In 1935, Einstein suggested that quantum mechanics was incomplete due to its strange implications about entangled particles. Their challenge led to decades of experiments that eventually proved distant particles could affect each other instantly.

Mathematical breakthroughs influenced Shakespeare’s stories

New ideas in math were transforming Europe at the time Shakespeare penned his plays, including newly popular conceptions of zero via philosophers Descartes and Leibniz.

19th-century Americans used technology to try to prove the existence of ghosts

In the 19th century, following technological advancements like the telegraph, phonograph, and others, efforts were made to capture proof of ghosts. These technologies seemed supernatural in their own right and emerged at the same time Spiritualism took off in the US, resulting in new approaches to connecting with the dead.

The global horse market is worth about $400B

In this podcast episode from a new series on horses, Freakonomics explores the market around buying and selling some of the world's top sport horses, and the nebulous forces that make them so valuable.

Computer pioneer Alan Turing was also an elite runner

Alan Turing is credited with helping to found modern computer science, in addition to cracking the Nazi code known as Enigma. Beyond these world-historical achievements, the British mathematician also nearly represented his country in the Olympics in the marathon, running just 11 minutes slower than the eventual gold recipient at the 1948 games. Read more on this lesser-known aspect of the man here.

Harvard drowned rats for this?

Harvard's 1950s rat study was ethically questionable, but scientifically profound. One rescue attempt made rats swim 40x longer. The finding: hope isn't poetic, it's biological.

In 1898, Nikola Tesla wowed a crowd by controlling a boat with no visible connection

Some onlookers thought it was a trick, such a a monkey being inside the boat, rather than mind control or some other metaphysical phenomenon. In reality, Tesla was pioneering radio waves, proving wireless control was possible.

Thomas Edison, eager to communicate with ghosts, tinkered with an apparatus called the 'spirit phone.'

Horses account for about 96% of known mammalian cases of West Nile virus infection beyond humans.

The magazine competition that pitted Houdini against the author of 'Sherlock Holmes'

In 1922, Scientific American magazine launched a contest to prove, or disprove, the existence of ghosts and define the limits of Spiritualism. This article details how this competition furthered the growing ideological split between escapologist...

How a brain injury created a mathematical mind

In 2002, two men savagely attacked Jason Padgett outside a karaoke bar, leaving him with a severe concussion--and turning Padgett into a mathematical genius.

Nearly 50 years before the first observational evidence, a soldier fighting on the Eastern Front in World War I found a mathematical solution to Einstein's equations that suggested the existence of black holes.

Can animals understand fairness?

Academics have long wondered if fairness is solely a concern of humans. In the largest meta-analysis to date, UC Berkeley researchers tested whether monkeys felt jealousy after receiving unequal rewards. The patterns showed low evidence for inequity aversion and instead frustration due to their expectations not being met by humans. These findings suggest that pursuing fairness and equality is uniquely human.

Some Nobel laureates have expressed beliefs in pseudoscience after winning

Examples of the phenomenon, known as Nobelitis or Nobel disease, include promoting psychic research, harmful practices like eugenics, and seeing talking raccoons. Increased external pressures after a win and a greater spotlight may contribute to developing or exposing these beliefs.

The story of two female programmers running the simulations behind chaos theory's discovery

Margaret Hamilton and Ellen Fetter worked on MIT's 800-pound Royal McBee LGP-30 computer, which was fed binary code on paper tape to perform computations. Among the computations performed were those involving equations describing the motion of gas in a circulating fluid for Edward Lorenz, widely considered the father of chaos theory.

How US horse breeders sourced animals from the Syrian desert

Alexander Keene Richards was a pioneer in thoroughbred racing in the US in the 1800s, a time when every town with a few thousand people had a horse track. This interview highlights how Richards went to great lengths to perfect horse breeding.

An academic on why the animals in 'Animal Farm' matter

Although Orwell intentionally wrote his 1945 novella as an allegory of the Russian Revolution, Charlotte Sleigh—an associate professor of science and technology—argues that the text can also be used to understand (and complicate) our relationship with the nonhuman world.

Anthropic's interpretability team discusses how AI models' thinking mimics biology

Just as humans engage in complex behaviors to survive and reproduce, teams of experts in neuroscience, virology, mathematics, and other disciplines argue that large language models develop complex mechanisms to achieve their goals. These mechanisms can be manipulated to assess how they modify outputs—much like stimulating individual neurons—to uncover how LLMs "think."

The human cost of creating medieval monsters

The concept and creation of monsters have been used since time immemorial to communicate social norms and the consequences of breaking them. Some so-called monsters were judged as such solely due to having features that would be considered birth defects in modern times. This in-depth article explores the human cost of creating medieval monsters, many of whom were defined by a physical appearance that deviates from the expected.

How math whizzes exploit sportsbooks

Chris Dirkus is a professional sports bettor who approaches the hobby as a math problem, not from a fan's perspective. He focuses on mispriced odds in popular games where many fans are betting for high liquidity. He's one of a rare segment of sports bettors exploiting slow models and human mistakes.

New York City's carriage horses are a holdover from a time when the city was home to hundreds of thousands of horses roaming its streets.

There are at least 6 fascinating examples of mind-controlling parasites

Parasitic organisms—including flatworms and barnacles, not just fungi—can modify animal behavior. They can give rise to dancing fish, pulsating snails, suicidal rats, and more. Though some of these pathogens can sicken humans, there is no strong evidence that any can control human behavior.

Button boards may be the next step in human-canine communication

In a viral trend, dogs have been recorded using button boards to seemingly "talk" with humans. Researchers are divided on whether this means dogs have learned language or are engaging in sophisticated behavioral conditioning.

What made Secretariat, one of racing's most dominant horses, so exceptional

No horse had won the Belmont, the "Test of the Champion," by 31-lengths prior to 1973 when Secretariat did it, and no one has done it since. In this New York Race Association article, jockey Ron Turcotte recounts his iconic race and provides his unique bond with his horse. He also reflects on Secretariat's post-Triple Crown career, noting how he matured later on.

Watch a timeline of the history of electricity, from observations of static electricity in antiquity to the War of the Currents—a rivalry to establish the ideal system for electric grids.

Science is rarely a linear progression of understanding

Particularly at the frontiers, investigations conducted based on established knowledge can provide unexpected results. This opens the door to revising existing models, inspiring new lines of research, and ultimately leading to better future comprehension. For instance, experiments on the speed of light and the expansion of the universe yielded then-confusing data that led to revolutionary insights.

The life of Edward Lorenz, who originally used a seagull in his 'butterfly effect' metaphor

By accidentally finding that rounding one variable to its third decimal place and re-running a weather simulation produced a drastically different two-month forecast, the American mathematician established the field of chaos theory. His paper—"Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?"—introduced the well-known metaphor for the behavior of chaotic systems. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

How a competition honoring a king's birthday uncovered history's first chaotic system

A committee established a contest for King Oscar II's 60th birthday, featuring four unsolved problems in mathematics, including one on proving the stability of a system of more than two objects held together by gravity. Focusing on three celestial objects, Henri Poincaré won the prize for his proof, which he later learned was incorrect and, upon correcting it, instead proved these systems to be unstable.

The Ishango bone suggests mathematics was born about 20,000 years ago

Ancient civilizations developed mathematical systems for various purposes, including the Egyptians for the construction of the pyramids and the Ancient Greeks for logical reasoning in theorems. However, these systems were predated by the Ishango bone—found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—whose notches suggest a base ten system, prime numbers, and simple mathematical operations.

One 'Harry Potter' fan fiction deals with cognitive science and philosophy

Eliezer Yudkowsky's "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" is not your typical fan fiction: It uses JK Rowling's fictional universe to wrestle with rationalist philosophy and the physics behind the magic taught at Hogwarts. The book went on to become popular in Silicon Valley, especially in the effective altruism movement.

In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute placed million-dollar bounties on seven unsolved problems in mathematics—the Millennium Prize Problems—in the hopes of spurring solutions.

Ghost hunting in the 19th century

This 40-minute podcast explores what it meant to hunt ghosts during the 19th century, when studying the paranormal was considered a mainstream scientific field. In 1847, a pair of sisters reportedly communicated with the spirit of a dead man...

Stephen Hawking's early rowing days shaped the bold persona for which he became known

Before gaining fame as a physicist, Hawking was a coxswain at Oxford, where the sport helped him find his social footing and develop leadership skills, even as his motor neuron disease began to emerge.

The theory behind Dalí's 'Un Chien Andalou'

The 16-minute "Un Chien Andalou," or "an Andalusian dog," was shocking for 1929, when it was released and remains unsettling today. This brief video essay explores how the film sought to disrupt standard conceptions of art and meaning, making it an essential example of surrealism.

New York City's carriage horses are at the center of a long-running debate over whether a centuries-old tradition still belongs in the country's largest city.

A 'paranormal activity' unit at the University of Virginia studies challenges to mainstream scientific ideas about human consciousness.

Horse diving was a popular attraction for 50 years

The event, which took place in Atlantic City, is exactly as it sounds: horses, directed by (sometimes scantily clad) riders, would jump from diving boards into pools. Although it was a popular spectacle for decades, it fell out of favor by the late 1970s.

Nine different studies exploring animals' relationship to music

Researchers have conducted multiple studies attempting to answer a certain question: do animals like human music? Across species, they observed different results and no clear pattern. Primates appear to prefer silence, and cockatoos appear to dance to funky beats.

Charles Darwin studied goose bumps by scaring zoo animals in London with a stuffed snake

Read the famous naturalist’s work from the late 1800s, detailing how he sought to draw comparisons between how animals and humans respond to fear. As part of that work, he exposed monkeys and a peccary to a stuffed snake and noted the animals’ hair-raising fear response.

Twain claimed to possess 'mental telegraphy'

In an 1891 essay, the writer claimed to possess psychic powers. It’s something that seemingly supported by his mother and his own death: Twain predicted he would die the day after Halley’s Comet returned in 1910, which did indeed happen.

Six of history's most unethical human experiments, from deliberate flu exposure to withholding syphilis treatment

Some of the progress made in mental health treatment, vaccines, blood transfusions, and more came about before the advent of consent and ethics committees, resulting in serious physical and psychological harm that participants in studies were not even anticipating.

Personality tests, like Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, feel accurate because humans tend to accept generic descriptions of themselves that include flattering statements—a psychological phenomenon known as the Barnum effect.

The complicated economics of horse racing

The Triple Crown commands big ratings (and enormous amounts of money in betting) but the sport as a whole is in a precarious position, thanks to limited tracks and an overreliance on subsidies. This special from Freakonomics unpacks what all that means for the future of the sport.

Ray Bradbury said he was inspired to pursue writing after meeting a magician named Mr. Electrico, but scholars have never been able to confirm the story.