Lists and Stories

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  Why Is Predicting the Weather So Difficult for Meteorologists? Simply stated, predicting the future is hard work, and meteorologists should never be expected to get things exactly right everywhere at once, but they often get close. Since ancient times, weather prediction has used observations to forecast changes. For many generations, almanacs that contained...
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  Why Is Pride Month Celebrated in June? Colorful uplifting parades with floats and celebrities, joyous festivals, workshops, picnics, and parties are among the principal components of LGBTQ Pride Month, also called Gay Pride, which is celebrated in June in the United States and elsewhere around the world. Pride Month commemorates years...
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  Why Is Puerto Rico’s Political Status So Complicated? In 2018 petitioners addressing the United Nations (UN) Special Committee on Decolonization described the United States’ relationship with Puerto Rico, according to a UN report, “as one of genocide and ‘economic terrorism,’ characterized by multinational corporations—facilitated by the United...
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  Why Is Saffron So Expensive? The ancient Greeks and Romans used saffron as perfume, and saffron is mentioned in the Chinese materia medica from the 1550s. Today the herb is also used as a cooking spice and a clothing dye. It’s now an essential part of some Eastern, Middle Eastern, and European dishes, such as the French...
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  Why Is Thanksgiving in the U.S. Celebrated on a Thursday? Thanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays in the United States, but formally establishing the day on which it is to be observed was difficult and fraught with controversy. By federal law, Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November since 1942, but numerous other...
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  Why Is the Indy 500 Held on Memorial Day Weekend? The first full year of auto racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was 1910. Races were held over the weekends of Memorial Day (then called Decoration Day), the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. However, attendance fell off over the summer. The speedway’s management felt there had been too much...
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  Why Is the Mona Lisa So Famous? Five centuries after Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa (1503–19), the portrait hangs behind bulletproof glass within the Louvre Museum and draws thousands of jostling spectators each day. It is the most famous painting in the world, and yet, when viewers manage to see the artwork up close,...
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  Why Is the Ocean Salty? “Water, water everywhere,/ Nor any drop to drink.” This famous line, spoken by the lost sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, sums up one of the basic difficulties of life at sea: humans need water to survive, but seawater is too salty to drink. In fact, most of...
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  Why Is the Platypus a Mammal? When 18th-century zoologist George Shaw published the first scientific description of a platypus, many of his contemporaries did not believe that the animal was real. Shaw himself had initially believed the specimen to be a hoax consisting of body parts from different animals, sewn together to...
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  Why Is the Salvator Mundi Called the World’s Most Controversial Painting? Plenty of paintings have been called the “most controversial,” and the Salvator Mundi (produced after 1500; “Savior of the World”) is only the latest to be given that title. After the artwork sold as a previously lost Leonardo da Vinci in 2017 for $450.3 million—the highest price paid for a work of...
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  Why Is the Sky Blue? One of the perennial questions of childhood is “Why is the sky blue?” You may have asked this as a child, or you may have a child now asking you! The explanation begins with the ultimate source of light in our solar system: the Sun. Sunlight appears white, but this white light is made up of all the...
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  Why Is the Statue of Liberty a Woman? The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable statues in the United States. It is often seen as a symbol of freedom and justice, core principles in the United States’ Declaration of Independence from the British Empire in 1776. But why did sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi choose to make...
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  Why Is There an R in Mrs.? If we pronounce the title Mrs. as “missus,” why is there an r in it? Despite its pronunciation, the abbreviation Mrs. is derived from the title mistress, which accounts for that confusing extra letter. Mistress is the counterpart of master, which—you guessed it—is abbreviated to Mr. (Of course,...
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  Why Is There Fresh and Salt Water on Earth? Rain and other forms of precipitation fall on our planet as slightly acidic fresh water. As some of this water washes over the landscape, it physically erodes rocks and chemically breaks them down. It then carries salts from the rocks into rivers and other streams and deposits the salts in the...
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  Why Is Women’s History Month Celebrated in March? Each March, Americans celebrate National Women’s History Month: a chance to recognize women’s varied, and often under-recognized, accomplishments throughout history. It is celebrated with television specials, political speeches, classroom learning initiatives, and (more recently) social media posts...
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  Why Shouldn’t Babies Eat Honey? Children love sweets (a fair portion of children, at least). There’s just one sweet that the smaller and younger members of that crowd are strictly advised to never consume: honey. The World Health Organization is just one of many medical groups worldwide that agree that honey should not be fed to...
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  Why Was Frederick Douglass’s Marriage to Helen Pitts Controversial? On the morning of January 25, 1884, Jane Pitts woke up to newspaper headlines that her daughter Helen, without her knowledge, had married the famous abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass. The news of the union shocked many people, and scrutiny came from all sides at once toward the newlyweds,...
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  Why Was Nazi Germany Called the Third Reich? Nazi leader Adolf Hitler imagined his dictatorial regime as the historical successor to two great German empires. By claiming for his government the mantle of the Third Reich, Hitler attempted to position himself within the larger context of German and European history. In his mind, Hitler’s...
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  Why Was the Black Panther Film So Popular? The Black Panther comic book superhero has long been a Marvel fan favourite, especially among comic enthusiasts of colour. But when the Wakandan prince took to the big screen in 2018 as the lead in his own movie, his story shattered box-office records, took over the Internet, and inspired millions....
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  Why We Celebrate MLK Day In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is observed annually on the third Monday in January. The day commemorates the life and work of Dr. King, who was a Baptist minister and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. People are encouraged to use the day to “reflect on the...