Tag Archives: Mental Floss

19 Overlooked Scientists

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Scientists and inventors don’t have to be household names to have had a meaningful impact on the world. Take Alfred Lewis Wallace, who developed the idea of evolution by natural selection at the same time as Charles Darwin. In 1858, both of them presented papers on the subject to the Linnean Society of London, the world’s oldest, active biological organization. Then Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 and everybody forgot about Wallace. This episode of “The List Show” on Mental Floss shares the contributions of 19 scientists who have been overlooked for too long.

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Historic Heists to Talk About

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For all you knowledge junkies out there, Mental Floss takes a look at 25 historic heists around the planet, such as the man who robbed an armored truck in Washington after putting an ad on Craig’s List for road maintenance workers. Turns out that about 12 men showed up wearing yellow safety vests and goggles, and that’s how the robber dressed to grab money from the armored truck. When the authorities showed up, they found a lot of men fitting the robber’s description. Join Mental Floss host Craig Benzine to get your fix of trivia-tastic information.

Lost Cities Revealed

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Heracleion, one of the largest trade-port cities in ancient Egypt, was one of 25 lost cities you probably never heard of. John Green tells us that for a long time people believed it was underwater, and in 2013 divers finally started finding artifacts from the city in the Mediterranean Sea. Catch up on more triva-tastic info about lost cities with host John Green in this edition of Mental Floss.

Debunking Health Food Myths

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Don’t believe it when you hear that brown eggs are more nutritious for you than than white eggs. Wrong again! Actually, the color of eggs is only affected by the genetics of the hen that laid them and has little to do with nutritional content. This is just one of the many misconceptions about health food that are debunked in this edition of Mental Floss, hosted by Elliott Morgan.

T. Rex Had Formidable Arms

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One of the most surprising misconceptions about dinosaurs is that Tyrannosaurus rex, aka T rex, had tiny arms. The king of the dinos indeed had small arms in modern depictions, but because T. rex stood 18-feet-tall, his arms measured around 3-feet. Popular Science magazine estimated that T. rex could curl 430 pounds, compared to a human’s max of 260. Host Elliott Morgan details more dinosaur misconceptions in this edition of Mental Floss.

Getting Cheesy

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OK trivia-hungry junkies, today’s subject is the origin of cheese names, such as Monterey Jack, which was named after a place and a person. The place was Monterey, California, where Mexican Franciscan friars made the cheese in the 1700s, and the name Jack after David Jack, a businessman who began selling the product. If you want to add to your knowledge of history, join John Green as he spouts off about 23 other name origins of cheese in this edition of Mental Floss.