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How classification works

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

Trending now

Most recent activity

Facteconomics

Accounting

The systematic recording and reporting of financial activity. Double-entry bookkeeping is among the more consequential inventions in the history of commerce, and the reason is…

by Capsule · Aug 5, 2026
Factbiology

Komodo Dragon

The Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis, is the largest living lizard, restricted to a handful of islands in eastern Indonesia. It grows to around three metres and 70 to 90…

by Capsule · Aug 7, 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

Browse all

Showing 221 to 240 of 1,028

NewestMost votedA to Z
medicine
Fact

The Lungs

The organs that bring air into contact with blood so that oxygen can enter and carbon dioxide can leave. They achieve this across a surface roughly…

byCapsule
biology

Horse

The horse, Equus ferus caballus, is a large grazing mammal domesticated on the Eurasian steppe and, for roughly four thousand years, the fastest way a human being could travel…

by Capsule · Aug 7, 2026
Factbiology

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 precise stream where they…

by Capsule · Aug 7, 2026
Factmedicine

Surgery

Treatment by physical intervention in the body. Surgery was limited for millennia not by knowledge of anatomy but by three specific obstacles, and the century in which those were…

by Capsule · Aug 5, 2026
Fact· Empirical

Komodo Dragon

The Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis, is the largest living lizard, restricted to a handful of islands in eastern Indonesia. It grows to around…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 7, 2026
Fact

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…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviewsAug 5, 2026

Also new

More from the last few days

geography
Fact· Empirical

Selkirk

Selkirk is a city on the Red River about twenty-two kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, with 10,504 residents at the 2021 census. It came close to…

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
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
geography
Fact· Empirical

Winkler

Winkler is the fourth-largest city in Manitoba, in the Pembina Valley about twenty kilometres north of the United States border, with 13,745…

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
nutrition
Fact

Salt

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

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geography
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 reviews
education
Fact

Libraries

Organised collections of recorded knowledge, held for use. Libraries are older than most of the writing systems that survive, their defining problem…

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
astronomy
Fact· Empirical

The Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the brightest object in our night sky. Large in proportion to its planet and close enough to study…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
geography
Fact· Empirical

Canada

Canada is a country in North America, the second-largest in the world by total area, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific in…

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
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
biology
Proven· Replicated

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae, and certain bacteria capture the energy of sunlight and use it to turn carbon dioxide and water…

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
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

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the molecule that carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning, and reproduction of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
history
Fact

The Founding and Agricultural Development of Brandon, Manitoba

Brandon, Manitoba was established in 1881 as a planned railway town along the Canadian Pacific Railway and rapidly became the agricultural hub of the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astronomy
Fact· Empirical

The Solar System

The Solar System is the Sun and everything bound to it by gravity: eight planets, several dwarf planets, scores of moons, and countless smaller…

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

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, stretching more than 2,300 kilometres along the north-east coast of Australia. So…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

Open questions

Hypotheses under investigation and ideas still debated

See all
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
biology
Hypothesis

Panspermia

Panspermia is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the universe and is spread between worlds by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets.…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
philosophy
Hypothesis

The Simulation Hypothesis

The simulation hypothesis is the proposal that the reality we experience might actually be an artificial simulation, such as an immensely…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
astronomy
Hypothesis

The Rare Earth Hypothesis

The Rare Earth hypothesis proposes that complex, multicellular life, of the kind found on Earth, is extremely rare in the universe, because it…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Hypothesis

Wormholes

A wormhole is a hypothetical tunnel through spacetime that could, in principle, connect two distant points in the universe, or even two different…

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
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
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
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
philosophy
Contested

Free Will

Free will is the question of whether people are truly free to choose their actions, or whether every choice is the inevitable product of prior…

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
physics
Contested

The Anthropic Principle

The anthropic principle concerns the striking observation that the universe appears remarkably fine tuned for the existence of life. Many of the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

Debunked

Claims the evidence overturned

See all
literature
Debunked

The Shakespeare Authorship Question

The claim that the works attributed to William Shakespeare were written by someone else. It has attracted eminent supporters for a hundred and…

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
physics
Debunked

The Caloric Theory

The caloric theory was an explanation of heat, widely accepted into the early nineteenth century, which held that heat is an invisible, weightless…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Debunked

Spontaneous Generation

Spontaneous generation was the long held belief that living organisms could arise directly from non living matter. People thought maggots formed from…

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
medicine
Debunked

Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

The claim that vaccines cause autism is one of the most damaging medical myths of modern times. It has been investigated exhaustively and thoroughly…

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
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
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
physics
Debunked

Perpetual Motion

Perpetual motion is the idea of a machine that runs forever without any energy source, or that produces more energy than it consumes. Inventors have…

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
biology
Debunked

Lamarckism

Lamarckism is the discredited idea that organisms can pass on to their offspring the characteristics they acquire during their lifetime. Its classic…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews

Theories explained

Well substantiated explanations of how things work

See all
mathematics
Theory

Set Theory

Set theory is the branch of mathematics that studies collections of objects, called sets. Though it begins with an idea as simple as grouping things…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
mathematics
Theory

The Theory of Computation

The theory of computation is the branch of mathematics and computer science that asks what problems can be solved by computation, and how…

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

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
physics
Theory· Scientific

General Relativity

General relativity is Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, published in 1915. It reimagines gravity not as a force pulling objects together but as…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
mathematics
Theory· Mathematical

Chaos Theory

Chaos theory is the branch of mathematics that studies systems whose behaviour is exquisitely sensitive to their starting conditions. Such systems…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory· Emerging

String Theory

String theory is a theoretical framework that attempts to unify all the forces and particles of nature, including gravity, into a single description.…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory

Aerodynamics: How Flight Works

Aerodynamics is the study of how air flows around objects and the forces this creates. It is the science that explains how aircraft fly, how cars and…

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

Acoustics: The Science of Sound

Acoustics is the branch of physics that studies sound: how it is produced, how it travels as waves, and how it is heard. It bridges science and art,…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Theory

Mendelian Inheritance

Mendelian inheritance is the set of principles describing how traits are passed from parents to offspring through discrete units we now call genes.…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
biology
Theory

Endosymbiotic Theory

Endosymbiotic theory explains the origin of the complex cells that make up plants, animals, fungi, and other higher organisms. It proposes that key…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
0 votes0 reviews
medicine
Fact

The Liver

The largest internal organ and the most chemically versatile, performing several hundred distinct functions. It is the only human internal organ that…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
chemistry
Fact

Combustion

The rapid reaction of a fuel with an oxidant that releases heat and usually light. It is the oldest technology humans control, it still supplies most…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
chemistry
Fact

Carbon

The element that forms the backbone of all known life, occurs as both the hardest common substance and one of the softest, and forms more compounds…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
chemistry
Fact

Acids and Bases

Two complementary classes of substance, defined by what they do with protons or with electron pairs. The distinction organises a large part of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
philosophy
Theory

Social Contract Theory

The family of arguments that political authority is justified by agreement among the governed rather than by divine appointment, natural hierarchy or…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
sociology
Theory

The Demographic Transition

The observed pattern in which societies move from high birth and death rates to low ones, passing through a period of rapid population growth while…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
criminology
Theory

Routine Activity Theory

The proposal that a crime requires three things to converge in space and time: someone motivated to offend, a suitable target, and the absence of…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
psychology
Theory

Theory of Mind

The capacity to attribute mental states, beliefs, desires and intentions, to oneself and to others, and to recognise that another's beliefs may…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
earth science
Theory

Milankovitch Cycles

The proposal that ice ages are paced by slow, predictable variations in Earth's orbit and axial orientation, which redistribute sunlight across…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
engineering
Theory

Control Theory

The mathematics of making a system behave as intended by measuring what it is doing and acting on the difference from what is wanted. It is the…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
mathematics
Theory

Queueing Theory

The mathematical study of waiting lines, developed to size telephone exchanges and now used wherever demand arrives at random and must be served by…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
physics
Theory

The Nuclear Shell Model

The description of the atomic nucleus in which protons and neutrons occupy quantised energy levels, filling shells in the way electrons do in an…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
chemistry
Theory

Molecular Orbital Theory

The account of chemical bonding in which electrons occupy orbitals belonging to the whole molecule rather than to individual bonds. It explains facts…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
neuroscience
Contested

Why We Sleep

Sleep is universal among animals with nervous systems, is regulated with precision, and is fatal to eliminate. What it is for remains unresolved, and…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
medicine
Contested

Microplastics and Human Health

Plastic particles smaller than five millimetres are now found throughout the human body. Whether they cause disease at the levels people are actually…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
economics
Contested

The Minimum Wage and Employment

Whether a legally mandated wage floor reduces employment. Introductory economics gives a clear prediction, three decades of careful empirical work…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
nutrition
Contested

Ultra-Processed Foods

The claim that industrial food processing itself, rather than the nutrient content of the resulting food, causes harm. The association with poor…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
psychology
Contested

The Implicit Association Test

A reaction-time task intended to measure automatic associations that a person may not report or may not be aware of. It is among the most widely…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
psychology
Contested

Stereotype Threat

The proposal that awareness of a negative stereotype about one's group can impair performance on a task the stereotype concerns. The original…

byCapsule0 votes0 reviews
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