The 2025 Nobel Prize laureates were announced this week. Established by the 1895 will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, the awards recognize those who have conferred "the greatest benefit to humankind”. Learn more ➡️ w.wiki/3j6p

Pumpkin spice contains no pumpkin. It blends cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and, sometimes, allspice. First created to season pumpkin pie, the mix now perfumes lattes, cookies, and candles. Learn how simple combinations can define the taste of an entire season ➡️ w.wiki/FLhU

Before local parishes had graveyards, some English villages used corpse roads to carry the dead from remote settlements to churches with burial rights. Processions crossed fields and moorland, pausing at coffin stones that still mark the way. 🧵⬇️ (1/2)

Seeing double? Triple? Infinite? An image that contains a smaller version of itself creates the Droste effect. Named after a 1904 Dutch cocoa tin, it appears in art, advertising, and fractals. 🧵⬇️ (1/4)

Have you ever been to Frisland? How about Buss Island? Probably not, given they do not exist.  Phantom islands are places that exist only on maps, often appearing as errors, illusions, or unverified sightings by early explorers.  Discover a list of phantom islands ➡️ w.wiki/F6Rf

Sometimes, the story lasts longer than a song. Concept albums are collections of songs tied together by a narrative, theme, or musical motif. Are you listening to any concept albums? Get the full story on their origins and history ➡️ w.wiki/FLhR

With a career spanning more than 60 years, Jane Goodall, a British primatologist and anthropologist, redefined our understanding of chimpanzees and, perhaps, humanity itself. Learn about her enduring legacy ➡️ w.wiki/3hjR

The Tetris Effect shows how repetition shapes thoughts, dreams, and mental imagery. Brain scans link it to visual processing and memory. Even people with amnesia dreamed of falling blocks after playing, despite not recalling the game. Fit the pieces together ➡️ w.wiki/PEv

1 October is International Coffee Day. And you can see from the history of coffee culture that it is an international treasure. 🧵⬇️ (1/4)

Wikipedia, the go-to reference for billions of people, has been named one of the most iconic companies in Internet history by The Webby Awards 🎉  Learn how the encyclopedia and its volunteer movement became the "web’s public memory" ➡️ www.webbyawards.com//webby30/most-iconic-companies-wikipedia/

Statistically speaking, your friends probably have more friends than you do. The friendship paradox is a real, documented phenomenon in social network theory. It shows that most people technically have fewer friends than the average of their friends’ friend counts. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

The right to seek, receive, and share information is a recognized human right protected under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This human right is at the heart of Wikipedia's mission to spread free knowledge. Learn more ➡️ w.wiki/F6Rj

It began with a rebellion. After a falling out with the military governor Togashi Masachika, Ikkō forces overthrew him in 1488. Kaga ikki was part of a larger movement known as the Ikkō-ikki: uprisings led by followers of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, low-ranking samurai, and local farmers. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

Meet interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS ☄️ This large, icy comet, first seen in July, is hurtling through our Solar System – it is only the third interstellar object that has passed through it. Learn more about this billion-year-old cosmic visitor ➡️ w.wiki/Ex87

What will future historians know about the 21st century? You might imagine they will study our every meme and have unprecedented insight into our thoughts because of digital media. But our information is surprisingly fragile. 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

If you mash the audio example buttons on the wikipedia page for the IPA vowel sounds you can create a choir of mildly disgusted men

In 1949, you could walk into a store in the United States and buy a hat that doubled as a radio. Marketed as the "Man-from-Mars Radio Hat", it was a working portable radio built into a pith helmet, complete with vacuum tubes and a loop antenna sticking out of the crown. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

Can your dreams win you a Nobel Prize? 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

The original true crime? In 1991, hikers in the Ötztal Alps found Ötzi the Iceman, a mummified corpse who was likely the victim in a prehistoric homicide.  What we know for sure is that he was well-fed, carried weapons, and bore over 60 tattoos.  Thaw out more clues ➡️ w.wiki/7o7W

Salsa – Spanish for "sauce" – combines traditional rhythms with modern arrangements, horn sections, and improvisation. It is a living expression of Latino experience, carrying forward a rich history of cultural exchange and musical innovation. Learn more ➡️ w.wiki/4if9

Where does water feel like fire but flamingos thrive? In northern Tanzania, at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment, lies Lake Natron. This shallow salt-and-soda lake is fed mainly by the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River and mineral-rich hot springs. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

On the southeastern coast of India, facing the Bay of Bengal, lies Mahabalipuram – an ancient port city whose stone monuments have stood for over 1,300 years. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

We promise this pandemic was only virtual. 20 years ago, an unexpected event in the online game "World of Warcraft" caught the attention of players and researchers. A new dungeon introduced a boss whose special attack temporarily drained a player’s health and could spread to others nearby. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

The Elver Eating World Championships celebrate a Gloucestershire, England tradition. Revived in 2014 with imitation eels, it’s now a quirky nod to heritage where adults and children take part in unique ways.  Learn more ➡️ w.wiki/FJEL

Have you heard of Hannibal? Recognized as one of the most successful military tacticians and generals of Western antiquity, Hannibal Barca was born in 247 BCE in Carthage, a powerful city-state in North Africa. 🧵⬇️ (1/4)

What have you been reading lately? 8 September is International Literacy Day . One way of reading is an e-reader – a portable electronic device designed primarily for reading digital books, newspapers, and periodicals. 🧵⬇️ (1/4)

In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft to explore the outer planets and beyond. Each carried a 12-inch gold-plated copper phonograph disc – the Voyager Golden Record – intended as a message from Earth to any extraterrestrial life that might encounter it. 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

What does “!” actually mean❗ Used for joy, anger, warnings, and math (! = factorial), it is one of the most emotional punctuation marks. Some say it comes from Latin “io” – an ancient shout of joy. But in the wrong context, it can feel … hostile. Learn more! ➡️ w.wiki/3d73

Not just a mascot 🐐 The Kashmiri goat Billy was officially enlisted in the British Army – with a rank, a number, and a royal parade schedule. 🧵⬇️ (1/4)

Where is everybody? Physicist Enrico Fermi asked this in 1950, and it became one of science’s biggest puzzles 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

Every August, Buñol, Spain turns into the world’s biggest food fight.  La Tomatina started in 1945 as a street quarrel and has grown into a festival with 20,000 ticket-holders and over 100,000 kg of tomatoes thrown in a day 🍅 Read more ➡️ w.wiki/AQqL

A clay disc, 16 cm wide, stamped with 241 symbols in a spiral. The Phaistos Disc is one of the most mysterious objects from the ancient world. Discovered in 1908 in a Minoan palace in Crete, Greece, it dates to the second millennium BCE 🧵⬇️ (1/2)

Can a monkey write "Hamlet"? 🐒 The infinite monkey theorem states that given an infinite amount of time and a typewriter, a monkey randomly pressing keys would eventually produce every possible finite text – including the complete works of Shakespeare.  Learn more ➡️ w.wiki/6G3C

What started as a failed bank robbery in 1973 ended up naming a psychological phenomenon 🧵⬇️ (1/6)

Ready for your newest sports obsession? 🏉   The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup will feature 16 teams for the first time. Hosted in England from 22 August to 27 September, it kicks off in Sunderland and ends with the final at Twickenham 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

Stone tells many stories here. Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, India, features 7th–8th century CE monuments built by the Pallava dynasty. Early Dravidian temples, rock-cut sanctuaries, and sacred scenes carved in stone, still standing after more than a thousand years. ➡️ w.wiki/EL9A

Ready for a Wiki race? 🏇➡️🐈 Start with Incitatus, the horse of Roman emperor Caligula – reportedly given a marble stall and nearly appointed to the Roman Senate. Your goal: reach Stubbs, the honorary cat mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, in the US. Gallop into Wikiracing ➡️ w.wiki/oXY

Three hand signs. One simple game. Infinite chances to avoid washing the dishes ✊✋✌️ Rock paper scissors is played around the world – but the story behind it is far from simple 🧵⬇️ (1/6)

Imagine cities powered by renewable energy, buildings overflowing with greenery, and communities in harmony with nature. Solarpunk blends sci-fi, art, and activism to show hopeful, sustainable futures with DIY innovation, solar power, and social inclusiveness. Learn more ➡️ w.wiki/9BBv

Where was the Land of Punt? For over a thousand years, ancient Egyptians traded with Punt, bringing back gold, ivory, incense, and exotic animals. They sometimes called it "God's Land" 🧵⬇️ (1/2)

Only about 1 in 10 people are left-handed, but if that is you, today is your day 👈  Left-handedness has existed for tens of thousands of years. Tools, bones, and cave art show it. Even some animals display paw or wing preferences. 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

Are you a zoomer, a boomer, or neither? 12 August is International Youth Day, the perfect time to look at how generations are defined. Generational labels are everywhere, but what do they actually mean? 🧵⬇️ (1/7)

Two English academics went for a walk in the gardens of Versailles … and claimed to have slipped into 18th-century France. 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

The cuisine of the country with the largest variety of potatoes in the world? Count us in 🥔🧵⬇️ (1/4)

Happy International Cat Day 🐈‍⬛ Once described as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet", cats have a longstanding relationship with humans. Today, images and videos of cats make up some of the most viewed content online. Pounce over for more feline content ➡️ w.wiki/9eT3

Wikipedia is part of something bigger. It is one of many projects supported by the Wikimedia Foundation to help promote free knowledge. These projects are maintained by a global community of volunteers known as Wikimedians. Every year, we celebrate them ➡️ w.wiki/ExNz

No wheels. No help. Just vibes. ⛵🪨 For more than a century, people have noticed these so-called sailing stones silently making their own trails, moving, somehow, while no one is watching. 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

No cats were harmed or unharmed in the making of this Wikipedia article ⚠️ 🧵⬇️ (1/7)

Ever blurt out "rabbit rabbit rabbit" on the first day of the month and wonder why you sound like a spell-casting bunny? If so, you are part of a tradition with surprisingly mysterious roots 🐰🐰🐰 Learn more ➡️ w.wiki/AY2e

What happens when Wikipedia editors, tech wizzes, and free knowledge fans meet up? Find out at #Wikimania2025, taking place from 6–9 August in Nairobi and online ➡️ wikimania.org