Honey can sit in a cupboard for an absurdly long time without behaving like most other foods. That is because, from a bacterium’s perspective, honey is a deeply unpleasant place to live.
Spotting a tiny hole in an aeroplane window is not exactly reassuring. Fortunately, it is there on purpose — and it is part of the system helping the window cope with cabin pressure.
The tiny grooves around the edge of some coins look decorative. Historically, they solved a very real problem: people quietly shaving valuable metal off the edges.
The red British post box is so familiar it feels as though it must always have looked that way. It didn’t. For years, the standard colour was green — and people complained they could barely find them.
Your internet connection can be lightning-fast beside the router and mysteriously terrible two rooms away. The broadband probably hasn’t changed. Your house has simply got in the way.
Raise your right hand and your reflection appears to raise its left. Yet your head stays at the top and your feet remain at the bottom. How does a mirror know which direction to reverse? It doesn’t.
Britain drives on the left while most of Europe drives on the right. The reason is not a quirky decision made when cars arrived. By then, Britain had already been keeping left for generations.
You unwrap a forgotten chocolate bar and discover it covered in pale streaks or a dusty white coating. It looks suspiciously like it has gone off. Usually, something much less disgusting has happened.
Visit a grand old house and you may find a wall covered with dozens of little brass bells labelled Bedroom, Library, Drawing Room, and Dressing Room. They were essentially a household notification system.
Your phone can go from comfortably charged to desperately hunting for a socket surprisingly quickly on a freezing day. The strange part? Some of that missing battery may still be there.