What is a harpsichord?

An electric pipe organ in Germany is playing a song for 639 years

Created by composer John Cage, the Halberstadt organ first began playing the piece in September 2001, and has since made only nine chord changes. The device within a medieval church utilizes compressed air to play continuous tones. The next chord change is scheduled for August 2026.

Hear what ancient Greek music sounded like

Greek poetry was usually created with the intention that the words would be sung along with music. Evidence and reconstructions of ancient melodies and instruments mean researchers and musicians of today can play music in which the final notes have long since faded.

Bardcore: the modern exploration of medieval music

The medieval instrumentation and lyric interpretation of modern pop, rock, metal, and hip-hop took off in April 2020, launching a new and growing genre. Bardcore is defined by its use of musical nostalgia and internet culture’s “memeification,” according to the historians in this nearly two-hour-long podcast. Listen to this episode to hear a medievalist and music historian break down the rise, relevance, and reasons behind Bardcore.

Mozart defined the Classical period with realism and social commentary

Dive into the Classical period, a time that emphasized a less extravagant approach to music and focused on societal issues. Defined by Mozart’s influence, find specifics about his career and why he’s remembered for his compositions and the wit and emotional depth of operas like "The Magic Flute."

The origin of the 'barbershop quartet'

Barbershop is subgenre of acapella, limited to four singers who all play highly specific roles. If you see a particularly inspired quartet, you might even see them in old-timey barber dress, a nod to style's origin: the British barbershop. This brief explainer from Mental Floss breaks down the strange story behind the form and how it traveled overseas to become the music we know today.

Christmas carols evolved from medieval folk songs to modern holiday staples

Christmas carols began as communal folk songs in medieval Europe, and were later adapted into religious hymns. Revived in England in the 19th century, they have become a core holiday tradition around the world.

The first known mention of the term 'country' to describe music was in 1736

The November 26, 1736 issue of the Virginia Gazette described a fiddling contest for "country" musicians. While the musical style would go by many names over the next two centuries, "country" was the one that eventually stuck.

A timeline of computer history

The earliest computers bear little resemblance to the computing devices that most people rely on today. This timeline graphic from the Computer History Museum tracks their evolution, from the early days of bulky mainframes that only experts generally used through to the personal computing revolution and on to the modern mobile era. Readers will learn important context ahead of the next major computing platform shift.

Meta's Quest and other mixed reality devices can make learning new skills easier

PianoVision utilizes the passthrough visibility of a headset to illuminate which keys to play on a real piano or keyboard, providing an immersive, software-based learning alternative to human instruction. Similar apps also offer virtual model replacements for physical devices, such as a virtual piano, to practice with.

The history of the tennis racket

Today's tennis rackets are made from lightweight composite materials, which is a big reason power, speed, and spin dominate today's game. But they weren't always built this way. This Top Sport Gear video shows the evolution of the tennis racket, from its start as medieval paddles, to the wood rackets of the early 1900s.

The physics behind opera singing

How can opera singers project their voices to audiences in huge auditoriums without using microphones and overpowering the orchestra? This video explains this phenomenon, using animation to demonstrate the physics of the human voice and how opera singers hone their technique to hit higher frequencies and a distinctive ringing timbre known as their squillo.

Chess traces its roots to chaturanga in sixth-century India

The earliest form of chess, known as chaturanga, emerged in India around the sixth century. The game simulated four divisions of the military—infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots—and laid the foundation for modern chess’ structure and strategy.

A lot of jazz relies on syncopation

The style is when a musician plays a rhythm on the opposite side of the beat. That means notes are played on the "upbeats," or the spaces between the main beats of a musical bar. The effect is music that can sound unpredictable, even if it's been carefully constructed.

Famicom was the predecessor to the NES

Before the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the US, Nintendo released a similar console in Japan with some interesting differences, including a Delorean-like exterior and a built-in microphone for karaoke.

The word 'hoax' comes from the phrase 'hocus-pocus'

The famous phrase "hocus-pocus" combines liturgical Latin and gibberish. It's a silly series of words often said during magic tricks. The phrase naturally evolved into "hoax" over time and became a standard English word around the year 1800.

The Medicis of Italy innovated 'bills of exchange,' precursors to checks

At the time, lending money for interest (also known as usury) was banned in much of the Christian world. The enterprising Medicis developed bills of exchange to allow merchants to promise payment without cash or coin (with some discrete means of earning interest woven in). Learn more about how this family laid the foundation for modern banking.

See Harvard’s early history through Indigenous voices

Founded in 1636, Harvard University grew alongside English colonization in Wampanoag lands. In this online exhibit, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology highlights Indigenous voices, interpreting objects such as eel traps and grass baskets.

Dom Pérignon was a 17th-century French monk often inaccurately credited with inventing Champagne

You’ve probably heard of Dom Pérignon the brand, but what do you know about Dom Pérignon the man? He is often credited with inventing Champagne—which is why the iconic (and expensive) Champagne house is named after him—but the truth is he simply pioneered many methods for manufacturing it.

The Alhambra’s medieval water system powered a palace-city

Built over centuries by Islamic rulers in medieval Spain, the Alhambra used canals and pressurized tanks to move water throughout the complex. Its sophisticated system supplied fountains, baths, and gardens, showcasing advanced medieval engineering.

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.

Prince was known as a genre-crossing polymath

The son of two Minneapolis jazz musicians, Prince was surrounded by music from a young age. His full name, Prince Rogers, was actually derived from his father's group, the Prince Rogers Trio. He eventually learned how to play his father's piano, teaching himself the themes to popular TV shows. Eventually, he learned other instruments and expanded his music tastes, indulging in records by Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, and more. Below is his junior high school yearbook photo.

How Hans Zimmer wrote the music for 'Dune'

Legendary composer Hans Zimmer—who scored "Lion King," "Gladiator," "Inception," and more—was tasked with writing the music for the science-fiction hit "Dune." In this entertaining and brilliant video, the German musician explains how he developed the otherworldly strangeness of the film's music, including the use of ultrarare instruments, guttural singing, and more.

High-heeled shoes only became associated with femininity in the 18th century.

High heels originated as practical men’s footwear—used by Persian cavalry and later adopted by European elites, such as Louis XIV, as symbols of power and status. Only in the 18th century did heels become associated with femininity, before periodic male revivals.

Sarah Bernhardt was the first actress to play Shakespeare's iconic Hamlet on film

Bernhardt was a popular 19th- and 20th-century actress with a knack for self-promotion. Case in point: When she took over the Théâtre de Ville in Paris, she renamed it Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt. Her production of "Hamlet" at the theater starred her, naturally, as the titular character. A recording of the performance is believed to be the first woman to play Hamlet caught on film.

Horror is an artistic genre aimed at scaring its audiences

Whether it's a movie, novel, comic book or any of the genre's other terrifying incarnations, horror's primary purpose is to scare its audiences. Throughout its history, the style has evolved and splintered, and now includes many subgenres, like the slasher flick, the found footage film, and even the horror comedy.

Age-related hearing loss, known as presbycusis, is a top cause of hearing loss

This video walks through the biology of why presbycusis (prez-buh-kyoo-sis) occurs and its etiology. This type of hearing loss is gradual and typically starts with reductions in the ability to hear high-pitched sounds.

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

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

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

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

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 pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

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.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

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 Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

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.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.