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Truth Classification

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Capsule of the Day

DebunkedThe PolygraphThe instrument popularly called a lie detector, which records breathing, blood pressure, pulse and skin conductance dur…

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The library

Capsules

1,028 capsules, each one classified by the strength of its evidence.

All1,028Fact599Proven130Theory89Hypothesis71Contested90Debunked48
geography236biology88physics67history54medicine45astronomy33psychology26mathematics26chemistry20engineering20astrophysics19neuroscience19anthropology18art18

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Most recent activity

Factbiology

Chimpanzee

The chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, is one of the two species of the genus Pan and, with the bonobo, the closest living relative of human beings. It is a forest and woodland ape of…

by Capsule · Aug 7, 2026
Factepidemiology

Sanitation

The safe management of human waste. It has saved more lives than any medical treatment, it is the least discussed of the major public health measures, and roughly a fifth of the…

by Capsule · Aug 5, 2026
Factgeography

Dauphin

Dauphin is a city in the Parkland region of western Manitoba, between Riding Mountain National Park and Lake Dauphin, with 8,368 residents at the 2021 census. It is the service…

by Capsule · Aug 7, 2026
Fact

Browse all

Showing 301 to 320 of 1,028

NewestMost votedA to Z
Hypothesis

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

The proposal that evolutionary theory needs restructuring to give causal roles to development, inheritance beyond genes, and organisms shaping their…

byCapsule
nutrition

Salt

Sodium chloride. It is physiologically essential, it was the only reliable food preservative for most of history, and its scarcity relative to demand made it a strategic commodity…

by Capsule · Aug 5, 2026
Facteconomics

Banking

Institutions that take deposits and make loans. The central fact about banking is that it creates money rather than merely storing it, and almost every difficulty the industry…

by Capsule · Aug 5, 2026
Factagriculture

Fishing

Catching aquatic animals for food. It is the last major food source still taken from the wild at scale, which is precisely why it is the one where the resource has been repeatedly…

by Capsule · Aug 5, 2026
Fact

Sanitation

The safe management of human waste. It has saved more lives than any medical treatment, it is the least discussed of the major public health…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 5, 2026
Fact· Empirical

Dauphin

Dauphin is a city in the Parkland region of western Manitoba, between Riding Mountain National Park and Lake Dauphin, with 8,368 residents at the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 7, 2026

Also new

More from the last few days

geography
Fact· Empirical

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Manitoba, built where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet near the longitudinal…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Fact· Empirical

Common Raven

The common raven, Corvus corax, is the largest songbird in the world and among the most widely distributed birds on Earth, occupying the whole…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
medicine
Fact

Nursing

The care of the sick, injured and dependent. Nursing is the largest health profession by a wide margin, its outcomes are measurable and substantial,…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
media studies
Fact

The Telegraph

Communication by coded electrical signal over wires. It was the first technology to separate the speed of a message from the speed of travel, and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Fact· Empirical

Seahorse

Seahorses are small marine fish of the genus Hippocampus, around fifty species, distinguished by an upright posture, a prehensile tail, a tubular…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geography
Fact· Empirical

Portage la Prairie

Portage la Prairie is a city in central Manitoba on the Assiniboine River, about eighty kilometres west of Winnipeg, with 13,270 residents at the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Fact· Empirical

Salmon

Salmon are anadromous fish of the family Salmonidae: born in fresh water, grown at sea, and returning to fresh water to spawn, in most cases to the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Fact· Empirical

Platypus

The platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal of eastern Australia. It lays eggs, produces milk without nipples, detects…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

On this day

A birth or event with an anniversary today

history
Fact· Empirical

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal copper statue on an island in New York Harbor, one of the most famous monuments in the United States and a…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

Settled science

Verified facts and proven results

See all
biology
Fact· Empirical

Lion

The lion, Panthera leo, is the only truly social cat and the second largest after the tiger. It once ranged from southern Africa through the Middle…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
history
Fact· Empirical

The Colosseum

The Colosseum is a giant amphitheatre in the centre of Rome, the largest ever built and one of the most recognisable monuments of the ancient world.…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geography
Fact· Empirical

The Sahara

The Sahara is the largest hot desert on Earth, a sweep of sand, gravel, and bare rock stretching across northern Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
science
Fact

CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing: Mechanism and Applications

CRISPR-Cas9 is a programmable nuclease that uses a guide RNA to direct the Cas9 enzyme to a specific genomic sequence, where it introduces a precise…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Fact· Empirical

Great White Shark

The great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is the largest predatory fish, reaching about six metres. It is warm-blooded in a limited and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
history
Fact· Empirical

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is not a single wall but a vast, discontinuous system of fortifications, walls, watchtowers, garrisons, and beacon towers,…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astronomy
Fact· Empirical

Black Hole

A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape once it passes a certain boundary. They are…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
engineering
Proven

Arc Flash Hazard Mitigation in Industrial Electrical Systems

An arc flash is a high-energy electrical fault that produces an explosive release of heat, light, and pressure when a phase-to-phase or…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Fact· Empirical

Honey Bee

Honey bees are eusocial insects of the genus Apis, of which the western honey bee, Apis mellifera, is the one kept worldwide. They communicate the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
chemistry
Fact

Water (H₂O)

Water is a chemical compound with the formula H₂O, consisting of two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to one oxygen atom. Its bent molecular geometry…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geography
Fact· Empirical

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is one of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth: an immense gorge carved by the Colorado River through the high plateau of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geography
Fact· Empirical

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth as measured from sea level, with a summit reaching 8,848.86 metres (29,031.7 feet) above sea level, a…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

Open questions

Hypotheses under investigation and ideas still debated

See all
history
Contested

The Bronze Age Collapse

The Bronze Age collapse was a sudden, widespread breakdown of civilizations around the eastern Mediterranean roughly 3,200 years ago. Within a few…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astronomy
Contested

Is Pluto a Planet?

Whether Pluto should be called a planet is a question that has divided astronomers and captured the public imagination. Discovered in 1930 and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astronomy
Contested

The Fermi Paradox

The Fermi paradox is the puzzling contrast between the high apparent likelihood that alien civilizations exist somewhere in our vast galaxy and the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astrophysics
Contested

How the Universe Will End

The ultimate fate of the universe is one of the deepest questions in science. Cosmologists have proposed several very different endings, and which…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
psychology
Contested

Nature versus Nurture

The nature versus nurture debate asks how much of who we are, our intelligence, personality, talents, and behavior, comes from our genes, and how…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
science
Hypothesis

Quantum Entanglement as a Substrate for Consciousness

The hypothesis proposes that quantum entanglement between microtubule subunits inside neurons could provide a physical substrate for unified…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Contested

Are Viruses Alive?

Whether viruses count as living organisms is a question biologists have debated for over a century, and there is still no settled answer. Viruses sit…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
mathematics
Hypothesis

The Riemann Hypothesis

The Riemann hypothesis is the most famous unsolved problem in mathematics. Proposed by Bernhard Riemann in 1859, it makes a precise claim about the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astronomy
Hypothesis

The Dyson Sphere

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that an extremely advanced civilization might build around a star to capture a large share of its…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Contested

Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics is the most successful physical theory ever devised, predicting the behavior of atoms, light, and subatomic particles with…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
earth science
Hypothesis

The Gaia Hypothesis

The Gaia hypothesis proposes that life and its physical environment on Earth form a single, self regulating system that keeps the planet suitable for…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
neuroscience
Contested

The Hard Problem of Consciousness

The hard problem of consciousness is the question of why and how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience, the felt quality…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

Debunked

Claims the evidence overturned

See all
astrophysics
Debunked

The Steady State Theory

The steady state theory was a model of the universe, popular in the mid twentieth century, which held that the universe has always looked roughly the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
history
Debunked

Piltdown Man

Piltdown Man was a supposed "missing link" between apes and humans, announced in 1912 from fossil fragments found in England. For decades it misled…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
education
Debunked

Learning Styles

The idea that each person learns best through a particular sensory channel, and that teaching matched to that channel improves learning. It is…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geology
Debunked

The Hollow Earth

The hollow Earth was the idea that our planet is not solid but hollow, perhaps containing a habitable inner world, or even inner suns and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Debunked

The Luminiferous Aether

The luminiferous aether was a hypothetical substance once believed to fill all of space and to serve as the medium through which light waves…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astronomy
Debunked

The Martian Canals

The Martian canals were a network of fine, straight lines that some astronomers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries believed they…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
architecture
Debunked

The Golden Ratio in Art and Architecture

The golden ratio is a real and interesting number. The claim that it governs the Parthenon, the Great Pyramid, the Mona Lisa and the proportions of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
science
Debunked

Cold Fusion at Room Temperature

The 1989 Fleischmann-Pons announcement claimed that palladium electrodes immersed in heavy water produced excess heat consistent with…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
history
Debunked

Astrology

Astrology is the belief that the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars influence human affairs and personalities, and that they can be used…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
nutrition
Debunked

Breakfast as the Most Important Meal

The claim that eating breakfast is necessary for health and weight control, and that skipping it causes weight gain. The phrase was popularised by…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
chemistry
Debunked

Phlogiston Theory

Phlogiston theory was an early explanation of combustion, widely accepted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It held that all flammable…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
neuroscience
Debunked

Phrenology

Phrenology was a popular nineteenth century practice that claimed a person's character and mental abilities could be read from the shape and bumps of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

Theories explained

Well substantiated explanations of how things work

See all
biology
Theory

Cell Theory

Cell theory is one of the foundational ideas of biology. It holds that all living things are made of cells, that the cell is the basic unit of life,…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory

Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics that describes the behaviour of matter and energy at the smallest scales, those of atoms and subatomic…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
mathematics
Theory

Topology

Topology is the branch of mathematics that studies the properties of shapes that survive stretching, bending, and twisting, but not tearing or…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
chemistry
Theory

Atomic Theory

Atomic theory is the idea that all matter is made up of tiny particles called atoms. It is one of the most important and successful ideas in all of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory

The Kinetic Theory of Gases

The kinetic theory of gases explains the behaviour of gases as the result of countless tiny particles, atoms and molecules, in constant, rapid,…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory

Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism is the branch of physics that describes the forces between electric charges and the deep connection between electricity and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
earth science
Theory· Scientific

Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that Earth's outer shell is broken into a set of large, rigid plates that drift slowly over the hotter,…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is the branch of physics concerned with heat, energy, and work, and how they transform from one form to another. Its laws are among…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Theory· Scientific

Evolution by Natural Selection

Evolution by natural selection is the scientific theory that explains how the diversity of life arose and continues to change. It holds that…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory· Scientific

Special Relativity

Special relativity is the theory of space and time that Albert Einstein published in 1905. It revolutionized physics by showing that measurements of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics that studies light: how it travels, how it interacts with matter, and how it can be controlled with lenses and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geology
Theory

Uniformitarianism

Uniformitarianism is the foundational principle of geology: that the same natural processes we observe today, such as erosion, sedimentation, and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
0 votes0 reviews
Aug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Red Queen Hypothesis

The proposal that organisms must keep evolving simply to maintain their position, because everything they interact with is evolving too. It takes its…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

Antagonistic Pleiotropy

The proposal that ageing is caused by genes which help early in life and harm later, and which selection favours anyway because early effects matter…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Disposable Soma Theory

The proposal that organisms age because it is not worth the energy to maintain a body indefinitely when something will kill it anyway. It explains…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Free Radical Theory of Ageing

The proposal that ageing is cumulative damage from reactive oxygen species produced by normal metabolism. It dominated ageing research for half a…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Late Heavy Bombardment

The proposal that the inner solar system was struck by a sudden surge of impacts around 3.9 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years after…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

Clonal Selection

The immune system generates enormous numbers of cells with randomly assembled receptors, and whichever happen to fit an invader are multiplied. It is…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

Satellite Navigation

Knowing where you are anywhere on Earth to within a few metres, by timing radio signals from satellites. It works because atomic clocks are…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

The Four Colour Theorem

Four colours suffice to colour any map so that no two regions sharing a border have the same colour. It was conjectured in 1852, resisted proof for…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

The Nash Equilibrium

A situation in which no participant can do better by changing strategy alone. It is the central solution concept in game theory, it exists in every…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

X-rays

A form of light too energetic to see, discovered by accident in 1895, which passes through flesh and is stopped by bone. Within months it was in…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

Nitrogen Fixation

Air is nearly eighty percent nitrogen and almost nothing can use it. Breaking the bond that holds the molecule together is what makes proteins and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

Apoptosis

Cells kill themselves on instruction, following a controlled programme that dismantles them tidily. It builds bodies by removing what is not needed,…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

Long-Term Potentiation

A brief burst of activity at a synapse can strengthen it for hours, days or longer. It is the best-supported cellular mechanism for learning, it was…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Proven

Colour Vision

Colour is not a property of light. It is what the visual system computes from the responses of three receptor types, and the computation is what…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Social Defeat Hypothesis of Psychosis

The proposal that chronic experience of being excluded or subordinated raises the risk of psychosis, by sensitising the brain's dopamine system. It…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Old Friends Hypothesis

The proposal that the immune system requires exposure to organisms it co-evolved with in order to develop proper regulation, and that losing those…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Drunken Monkey Hypothesis

The proposal that the human attraction to alcohol descends from a primate ancestor's taste for fermenting fruit, in which ethanol signalled ripeness…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

The Savanna Hypothesis

The proposal that human ancestors left the forest for open grassland, and that walking upright, losing body hair and much else followed from that…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
Hypothesis

Integrated Information Theory

Giulio Tononi's proposal that consciousness is integrated information, quantifiable as a number called phi, and present wherever that number is above…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 3, 2026
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