Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Several hundred thousand years ago, human beings walked out of Africa.  What has been a subject of debate amongst anthropologists is why it happened, how it happened, and how many times it happened.  The process by which homo sapiens left their land of origin to populate the rest of the world has been one of the fundamental questions in anthropology.  Learn more about the Out of Africa hypothesis...

On December 29, 1940, a year before the United States entered the Second World War, President Franklin Roosevelt declared the United States to be an arsenal of democracy. When the US did finally enter the war, they faced a serious problem. The population of men who would normally be called upon to work in the factories was now being sent off to war.  The solution to the problem proved to be incred...

In the early 20th century, a Soviet agronomist named Trofim Lysenko developed some unique theories of biology and genetics.  He rose to the top of the Soviet hierarchy in his field, and Stalin himself endorsed his theories.  The result of the implementation of his ideas was nothing short of disastrous. Learn more about Trofim Lysenko and Lysenkoism on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. S...

Right now, as you are listening to the sound of my voice, you are breathing air.  Air is all around you all the time. When humans go into space or beneath the surface of the ocean, the one thing you absolutely have to take with you is air.  But what exactly makes up air? How did it get that way, and what was the air on Earth like millions of years ago? Learn more about air, its composition, and it...

Imagine a device that could supply an unlimited amount of energy. It would solve many of the world’s problems in one fell swoop.  Unfortunately, such a device is impossible to build, but that hasn’t stopped people throughout history from trying.  In fact, to this very day, people still claim that they have created perpetual motion machines, and they keep getting proven wrong. Learn more about perp...

The cold war was the defining event of the second half of the 20th century.  When exactly it ended has been subject to debate. Was it the fall of the Berlin Wall? Was the day the Soviet Union was dissolved? There is an argument to be made that end might have actually occurred before any of those things, although no one knew it at the time.  The event in question didn’t take place in Moscow or Wash...

The movie The Purge depicts a fictitious world where one night a year, there is a war of all against all.  If you look back in history, you will find a time when something similar happened.  Except it wasn’t a case of everyone against everyone, it was a case of everyone against a few.  For those who were the victim of this, it was terrifying. Learn more about proscription lists and why you never w...

In Greek, the word for dwarf is “nanos.”  The International Bureau of Weights and Measures adopted the prefix ‘nano’ to mean one billionth.  A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, and it is the scale at which some of the most groundbreaking work is being done in technology and materials science. Learn more about nanotechnology, its applications, and how it works on this episode of Everything Eve...

Located on the banks of the River Seine lies the city of Paris.  Paris has a long history dating back over 2000 years. During its long history, it has seen wars, plagues, and kings and emperors. Today it is the most visited city on Earth, home to some of the world’s greatest works of art, and one of the largest and most important cities in Europe.  Learn more about the history of Paris and how a s...

One of the most important inventions of early humanity was the compass. The compass has aided human navigation around the Earth for centuries.  Despite being a critical technology in the development of transportation, it actually took centuries between the discovery of its underlying principles and its eventual use as a practical tool for navigation.  Even though it was discovered over 2,000 years...

One of the most fascinating areas of mathematics and economics is game theory.  Game theory involves analyzing competitive situations where multiple participants make interdependent decisions. In other words, the result will depend not just on what you decide but on what someone else decides as well.  Game theory has applications not just in games but in business, personal relationships, internati...

On January 27, 1986, an event occurred that would be remembered by almost everyone alive at the time.  73 seconds into its flight, the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed by a violent explosion, killing all seven astronauts on board.  In addition to being seared into the minds of those who witnessed the tragedy, the disaster forever changed how space flights were conducted.  Learn more about th...

The third Monday of February every year in the United States is a holiday that most people know as Presidents’ Day.  It is not the most glamorous holiday and most people actually forget that it exists until they wonder why they didn’t get any mail. While the day itself isn’t really one that is celebrated, the story behind the day is much more fascinating than most people realize. Learn more about...

If you think of the first world war, your mind probably turns to images of trench warfare and thousands of men losing their lives to try and gain just a few meters of land.  However, in the first few weeks of the war, this was not at all the case. In fact, it initially looked like the war might not even last two months.  What stopped the collapse of France and began widespread trench warfare was a...

In 1879, Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist at Johns Hopkins University, made an astonishing discovery. He was conducting experiments with coal tar when he forgot to wash his hands.  When he started eating lunch, he noticed something odd. His fingers tasted sweet.  Fahlberg’s discovery was the start of a century-long pursuit to create alternatives to sugar. Learn more about artificial sweeteners, how...

The American constitution was written in 1787, but there was a mechanism built in to amend and change the document.  Since 1787 the Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992.  The most recent amendment, however, had a path to ratification, which was far different than any other of the 26 before it.  Learn more about the 27th amendment and the very circuitous route it took to ra...

On March 5, 1770, one of the major events leading up to the American Revolution occurred.  A confrontation between Boston civilians and British soldiers resulted in the deaths of five Americans.  While the events of that day helped spur the cause of American independence, the events which happened after helped determine what kind of country it was to be. Learn more about the Boston Massacre, its c...

Once every 450,000 years or so, the Earth undergoes a radical transformation.  The planet’s magnetic field will literally flip. The north pole becomes the south pole and vice versa.  Despite the fact that we know this has happened many times in the Earth’s history, we really don’t know what would happen if the poles were to reverse today. Learn more about when the Earth’s magnetic poles reverse on...

In 1999, two social psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, published a seminal paper on a cognitive bias that can affect nearly everyone.  Since the paper was published, it has given a name to something which most people have recognized and, at times, may have been guilty of themselves. However, most people who are familiar with the effect only know half the story.  Learn more about the D...

17th-century Europe was witness to one of the longest and most brutal wars in human history.  The conflict lasted over a generation and was responsible for the deaths of up to half the population in some countries.  When it finally ended, it resulted in a new geopolitical order, which, for the most part, still exists today. Learn more about the Thirty Years’ War, one of the bloodiest wars in histo...

One day every year, the United States celebrates its biggest non-official holiday: Super Bowl Sunday.  The championship game of the National Football League is almost always the biggest television audience of the year, and one of the most expensive tickets for any sporting event.  However, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl. Learn more about the Super Bowl and...

Of all the vitamins and nutrients which are required by the human body, there are 13 of which that are considered essential nutrients. That means they can’t be produced within our bodies. One of those vitamins can be produced in our bodies, but it requires a little bit of help to make it.  It is a vital component of human health, yet an enormous percentage of the world is deficient in it.  Learn m...

In 1612, when Galileo Galilei first looked at the stars through a telescope, he might have accidentally discovered a new planet, although he had no idea at the time.  It wouldn’t be for another 300 years until astronomers found what Galileo had missed, and the process of discovery was unlike any other planet.  Learn more about Neptune, the solar system’s most distant gas giant and the 8th planet f...

The French Revolution wasn’t just a political revolution where one government was replaced with a new one.  The French Revolution was also a social revolution. The largest social institution in France at the time of the revolution was the Catholic Church.  At the start of the revolution, the revolutionaries attempted to create a new state religion which was quite unlike anything else the world had...

During the height of the Second World War, American shipping to Europe was constantly being attacked by German U-boats.  In an attempt to completely bypass German subs, aviation pioneer Howard Hughes began construction on what would be the world’s largest aircraft.  A plane that was so large it could carry 750 passengers or two full-sized tanks across the Atlantic.  Sadly, it was hampered by warti...