Mental Floss

THE MAGAZINE

BYRON EGGENSCHWILER

By saving bananas and training pigs, these historical innovators improved their lives, made millions, and prevented nuclear catastrophe.

the mag








JOHN PATRICK THOMAS

Gesture researchers have spent the past 40 years uncovering how movements (like a cupped hand rotating in space or a finger tracing a path through the air) are intimately tied to speech.

the mag, Arika Okrent
















The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Digital Studio

A bizarre medieval manuscript written in a language no one can read has baffled the world’s best cryptologists, stumped the most powerful code-breaking computers, and been written off as a masterful hoax. Can the hive mind finally unlock the secrets of th

Erin McCarthy