The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Over the years, Baum’s story has had several adaptations and reinterpretations

The original 1900 book, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ has been adapted in various forms for various audiences. There’s been a Muppet-centric Oz, a 3D-generated Dorothy, and one that imagines an adult Dorothy living as a children’s author in New York, just to name a few.

Georges Méliès directed what many consider the first science fiction film

The French director was behind 1897's "Gugusse and the Automaton," a silent film that scholars believe features the first appearance of a robot in cinema and one of the earliest films to feature scientific experimentation.

The origin of cyborgs

The term "cyborg" was coined in a 1960 academic paper discussing what alterations humans would need to undergo to survive in extraterrestrial environments, a venture far "more logical than providing an earthly environment" in space. According to authors Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline, Cyborgs with a capital C have incorporated exogenous components that extend their ability to adapt to new environments. Read the paper here.

The history of torturing robots

When machines fail, its easy to get mad and even give them a good kick. But as humanoid robots become more sophisticated, the degree to which people abuse them has shifted, depending on how much emotion the robot expresses. Studies revealed when robots were programmed to cry during distress, participants felt empathy. Learn more about the history of human abuse of robots here.

Dr. Seuss was likely the first to use the word 'nerd' in print

The word appeared in 1950's "If I Ran the Zoo," but there are theories that the word (or forms of it) were already part of popular slang before the book was published.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Radiohead's chatbot was born over 20 years before ChatGPT

Looking for a novel way to promote their 2001 record "Amnesiac," Radiohead began working with ActiveBuddy, the people responsible for the popular SmarterChild chatbot, to create GooglyMinotaur, their own AOL chatbot based on a character based on the album. This oral history offers a deep dive on this fascinating piece of music and tech trivia, demonstrating the band's reliably forward-thinking perspective and providing a window into an early iteration of commercial artificial intelligence.

'Tin Toy,' the predecessor to 'Toy Story,' was the first fully computer-generated film to win an Academy Award

Before it was acquired by Disney, Pixar was a small studio exploring the possibilities of computer animation. "Tin Toy," a 1988 short film that would inspire 1995's "Toy Story," was one of its most successful experiments, earning Pixar's first Academy Award for best animated short film and becoming the first fully computer-generated film to win an Oscar. Although you won't find Woody or Buzz, it's fascinating to observe the seeds for what would come later.

Will Rogers' political humor was an early predecessor to stand-up

Rogers got his start spinning ropes for circus shows and broke through his association with Florence Zeigfeld's Follies and Frolic. It was his humorous political commentary, though, that would solidify his celebrity status. His goodhearted ribbing of society's "big men" predated the common notion of stand-up comedians as truth-telling jesters.

'Potter Puppet Pals' was one of the internet’s first viral videos

Created by animator Neil Cicierega in the early 2000s, Potter Puppet Pals featured felt puppets parodying the Harry Potter characters. Its 2007 video “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” became an early YouTube sensation, amassing more than 200 million views.

The term 'artificial intelligence' was coined in 1956

Dartmouth professor John McCarthy introduced the term during a summer workshop aimed at exploring how to make machines perform human-like tasks. Two years later, Perceptron Mark I became one of the first neural network machines.

Dickens' earliest pieces were under the pseudonym 'Boz'

Dickens began working as a journalist in 1829, publishing his portraits of modern life under a pseudonym. In 1834, he used the pen name "Boz," a reference to his brother's childhood nickname, and eventually published a collection of his stories called "Sketches by Boz." By the 1840s, he'd ditched the pseudonym, enjoying his rarefied literary celebrity.

Osamu Dazai's 'No Longer Human' found a new generation of readers, thanks to TikTok

The novel was published in 1948, a month after the writer's suicide, and went on to become a classic of Japanese literature. Decades later, an English translation gained popularity on TikTok, where younger readers praised the book for its handling of alienation. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

JRR Tolkien believed fantasy literature was an entirely different world

Tolkien effectively invented modern fantasy, which often relies on an intricate universe, complete with its own languages, cultures, lifeforms, physics, and systems. When an author did this effectively, he called it “Faërie”—a sort of enchantment that transports the reader into the fictional world.

Phantom limbs were first documented in the 16th century by a French military surgeon

Ambroise Paré, the military surgeon, observed this phenomenon among soldiers who'd lost limbs, yet the term wasn't formally coined until hundreds of years later, by Silas Weird Mitchell, an American Civil War surgeon.

Labubu dolls are based on characters from an illustrated book series

The plush dolls are based on characters from Kasing Lung's "The Monsters" book series. The collectible toys became a sensation when they were first released in 2019, with fans using the dolls as fashion accessories.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

The rare 1970s Ken Doll with facial hair

In 1973, Mattel released the Mod Hair Ken Doll. The toy was the first Ken since 1961 to possess "real" rooted hair, plus it came with sideburns, a beard, and two mustaches. For clothes, he wore a brown and white checked jacket, white turtle neck, light brown pants, and brown shoes. Take a look at images of the doll decked out in 1970s fashion for insight into life in another era.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

It took a month for the Rubik's Cube inventor to solve the cube

The Rubik's Cube is the most popular puzzle toy in the world, with over 350 million sold since its invention in 1975. Originally created as a tool to teach three-dimensional movement, the colorful problem-solving game skyrocketed in popularity, spawning speedcubing competitions and becoming a fixture of global toy culture.

Henry Ford pioneered the first moving assembly line, building on earlier iterations of the manufacturing method

Although cars existed before the Model T, manufacturing them required a group of highly specialized mechanics. The Model T was so affordable in large part because of the moving assembly line, which cut down the total manufacturing time of the car and replaced specialized workers with general laborers who performed repetitive tasks.

Who was the world's first author?

This article details the effort to define the world's first author, as supported by current archaeological evidence. Clay disks found in an ancient Sumerian city point to Enheduanna, a high priestess and daughter of Akkadian King Sargon, as the...

In 1938, 1.7 million people were fooled into believing a Martian invasion was underway because of a radio play

Orson Welles' realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth, called "The War of the Worlds," caused quite a stir with audiences. The broadcast resulted in panic, with some people in the area where the story took place attempting to flee. It also helped Welles secure a contract with a Hollywood studio, leading to the creation of "Citizen Kane."

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical reaper—and a territory-based sales force

In the 1830s, farmers were skeptical of new technology, so McCormick demonstrated the machine—described as a cross between a plow, a chariot, and a flying object—to prospective buyers. Long before modern sales norms existed, he divided the market into territories operated by agents who provided service on the machines, financing to expand the customer base, and product iteration based on feedback from regional agents.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

The Foolkiller: The mysterious submarine at the bottom of the Chicago River

In November 1915, a submarine was found at the bottom of the Chicago River. It had been there for at least 10 years, was 40 feet long, and contained the remains of a man and his dog. To this day, no one knows who built it.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Rockwell's 'Rosie the Riveter' alludes to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

Norman Rockwell's 1943 painting was intended to show the strength of female contributions to the American war effort and used the character of Rosie the Riveter, popularized in a 1942 song, to represent that. Although Rockwell used a model for the portrait, he made the woman larger on the canvas to parallel Michelangelo's painting of the Prophet Isaiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.