Technically Fiction
Finding facts in the fantastic
- Tech
Tracking Santa with science
Santa may be magical. But the North American Aerospace Defense Command (or NORAD) uses science to track his journey.
- Plants
Here’s how giant pumpkins get so big
Cinderella took a ride in a pumpkin coach. Though real pumpkins do get big enough, here’s why their ride would be uncomfortable at best.
- Archaeology
Women like Mulan didn’t need to go to war in disguise
Female skeletons in Mongolia show injuries like those of fighting men — evidence that they could be warriors, too.
- Animals
Minecraft’s big bees don’t exist, but giant insects once did
Big bees buzz in Minecraft. In our world, blocky bees might starve and be stuck on the ground. Yet long ago, giant insects did roam our planet.
- Genetics
What would it take to make a unicorn?
Onward’s dumpster-diving unicorns seem like an impossibility. But scientists have some ideas about how unicorns could become real.
- Physics
Frozen’s ice queen commands ice and snow — maybe we can too
In the Frozen movies, Elsa magically manipulates snow and ice. But scientists, too, make snowflakes. If they reinforce it, architects can build with ice and snow.
- Health & Medicine
Could Wednesday Addams really jolt a frog back to life?
A spark that recalls some science history brings a dead frog to life in The Addams Family. Scientists are now using electricity to build the body.
- Space
Could humans build a tall tower or giant rope to space?
The movie Ad Astra shows a space antenna, a spindly structure reaching up into the stars. We look at what it would take to build something that big.
- Health & Medicine
Fighting spider-fear with a little Spider-Man
Many people are afraid of spiders or ants. Watching a movie clip with the critters in it might help make people more comfortable with them, a new study shows.
- Animals
Let’s turn a genie blue
Aladdin’s genie is very magical. He’s also blue. What might explain that? Nature has some tricks on offer.
- Animals
Have we found bigfoot? Not yeti
Believe in bigfoot or sasquatch? The scientific evidence says bears are to blame for traces of yeti and abominable snowmen. But it’s ok to keep searching.
- Animals
Could an elephant ever fly?
Dumbo is known as the only elephant to take flight. He’s not real. But could he be?
