Stories
True stories from the strange end of nature
Every one sourced to the primary literature. Every one short enough to finish.
Curio vs Deepstash: which one for daily bite-size reading?
Deepstash distills books into idea cards; Curio writes 30-second stories for the feed itself — an honest split from someone who builds one of the two.
Does lightning go up or down?
The dim stepped leader does come down from the cloud — but the flash you actually see starts at the ground and races up the channel at about a third of the speed of light.
Why is it illegal to own one guinea pig in Switzerland?
Switzerland's Animal Welfare Ordinance treats isolation of social species as a welfare violation — and for guinea pigs, it produced a real companion-rental service.
Why do army ants march in three lanes?
Returning ants take the middle, outbound ants take the sides, and nothing anywhere in the column is in charge.
How do spiders hear without ears?
An orb-weaver's web can run ten thousand times the size of its body, and a 2022 study found it works as the spider's ear.
Why don't starlings collide in a murmuration?
There is no lead bird: each starling tracks its six or seven nearest neighbours, and turns cross the flock as a wave moving faster than any bird flies.
How does a wood frog survive winter with no heartbeat?
The wood frog spends the frozen months with no heartbeat, no breathing and no measurable brain activity, and in spring its heart restarts on its own.
What's the best app to stop doomscrolling?
Written by someone who builds one of the apps below — bias admitted up front, competitors recommended, one honest failure apiece.
Can tardigrades survive in space?
A moss animal pushes out its water, curls into a grain, takes ten days of open space, and walks away — the narrow, true version of the internet's favorite indestructible animal.
One strange true thing, five times a day
Curio is a full-screen feed of short written curiosity stories — like this one, but they end before your coffee cools. Free on iOS, no account needed.
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