Home

Why questions

Recent news and things that seem odd when you think about them. We answer each "why?" one at a time, with pictures and a video.

AI2

• Why can an AI with no medical license choose medicine in Utah?Only licensed people, like doctors, can prescribe medicine. That's the rule in Japan, and in America too. But in October 2026, a trial began in the US state of Utah to choose acne creams for first-time patients. The one choosing is an AI, and of course, an AI holds no medical license.November 7, 2026 · 8 min 23 sec
• Why did one person's week seem to use more than 10 times the tokens of Anthropic's big study?Anthropic's big study put 950 AIs to work for 21 hours and made a new discovery. It used 210 million tokens. But in the one week our Chief spent building his own app, Claude Code on his Mac used 2.4 billion tokens.October 21, 2026 · 5 min 21 sec

Everyday science1

• Ginkgo's autumn yellow was hiding in green summer leaves. So where was the maple's red all summer?In autumn, ginkgo trees turn yellow and maples turn red. But the ginkgo's yellow isn't a new color born in autumn. It was inside the green summer leaves all along, just hidden by the green.November 4, 2026 · 7 min 20 sec

Space3

• Why did a Moon car's 1973 record go unbeaten for 41 years?In 1973, the Soviet Moon car Lunokhod 2 drove about 39 kilometers across the Moon. The farthest anyone had ever driven beyond Earth. That record went unbeaten for forty-one years. On the Moon itself, it's still number one today.October 31, 2026 · 6 min 34 sec
• People walked on the Moon over 50 years ago. So why is NASA offering prize money over static electricity now?That winter zap from a doorknob. Good old static electricity. On the Moon, though, NASA has put up as much as $150,000 in prizes for ways to prevent the same kind of zap.October 28, 2026 · 7 min 28 sec
• Halley's Comet comes once every 76 years, so why do its pieces become shooting stars every year?Halley's Comet comes near Earth only once every 76 years. Its last visit was in 1986, and the next will be in 2061. And yet, pieces of it show up every year as shooting stars, always at the same time of year.October 14, 2026 · 6 min 9 sec