Knowledge timeline
Everything, in the order it changed
All 259 entries by the year the mainstream position actually shifted, newest first, from 2026 back to 1961. To see only what changed after you left, pick your year.
2026
A drug can switch a protein off, but it can't make the body throw the protein away2026
A gene-editing cure for sickle cell is only for teenagers and adults2026
Cerebral folate deficiency has no treatment2026
Deafness caused by a faulty gene is permanent; nothing can restore the hearing2026
For arginase 1 deficiency, all you can do is cut protein from the diet2026
For early bladder cancer, BCG is the only option, and nothing has improved on it in decades2026
Giant prehistoric insects could only exist because the air held more oxygen2026
New asteroids and cosmic explosions are found slowly, a handful at a time2026
No human has traveled beyond Earth orbit since 1972, and none will for the foreseeable future2026
Nothing can reach the brain damage of Hunter syndrome2026
The charred Herculaneum scrolls can never be read2026
The GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are injections; they can't be made into an ordinary pill2026
The powerful modern psoriasis drugs can only be given by injection2026
There hasn't been a genuinely new kind of blood-pressure drug in a generation2026
There is no drug approved to treat FSGS, a leading cause of kidney failure2026
Triple-negative breast cancer can't be targeted; chemotherapy is the only option2025
A day on Uranus is 17 hours and 14 minutes long2025
A gene therapy has to be developed for a whole patient population, never for one child2025
Computers can't do original mathematical reasoning; no machine could win a math olympiad2025
Earth's inner core is a solid, rigid ball of iron2025
Internet slang isn't real English2025
Nothing you can be given lowers your risk of dementia2025
Obesity is a single condition; your BMI says whether you have it2025
Only two objects from beyond the solar system have ever been detected2025
Pompeii was buried and abandoned in 79 CE2025
Red Dye No. 3 is an approved, safe coloring for the food on your shelf2025
Saturn has 82 moons2025
The blood-brain barrier keeps foreign particles like plastic out of your brain2025
The body of water south of the US is the Gulf of Mexico2025
The Milky Way is doomed to collide with Andromeda in about 4.5 billion years2025
The tokamak is the only serious path to fusion; the stellarator is a scientific curiosity2025
There is no shot to prevent HIV, only condoms or a daily pill2025
We have no idea what a Denisovan looked like2025
We have no idea what a Denisovan looked like2024
A daily multivitamin helps you live a longer, healthier life2024
A metal like gold cannot exist as a free-standing one-atom sheet2024
A returning rocket has to land on legs; you cannot catch one out of the sky2024
Adding more qubits only makes a quantum computer more error-prone2024
Cursive is obsolete, you'll never need it2024
Humans have 44 blood group systems, and the list is essentially settled2024
Mount Everest's height is fixed2024
Nothing humanmade can survive flying close to the Sun2024
Only a worm's 302-neuron brain has ever been fully mapped2024
Only national space agencies have ever landed on the Moon2024
Routine mammograms should start at 50; in your 40s it's a personal choice2024
Stonehenge's Altar Stone came from Wales2024
The Dragon Hole is the deepest blue hole on Earth2024
The oldest cave art, and the oldest storytelling, is European2024
The world has never crossed the 1.5°C warming line2024
There is no approved drug for fatty liver disease, only diet and exercise2024
We have left the Holocene and entered the Anthropocene2024
You cannot transplant an animal's organ into a human2024
You'll take the SAT with a No. 2 pencil2023
A daily glass of red wine is good for your heart2023
A solar cell can never convert more than about a third of sunlight to electricity2023
BMI tells you whether you are healthy2023
Earth's spin axis only wobbles from natural forces2023
Every continent has been fully mapped2023
Gene editing is experimental, with no approved therapy2023
Good readers guess words from context2023
New materials are discovered slowly, one painstaking experiment at a time2023
No AI could pass a professional licensing exam like the bar2023
No spacecraft has ever landed near the Moon's south pole2023
Nothing can slow Alzheimer's, only ease the symptoms2023
The Earth has a crust, a mantle, and a core2023
The faint gravitational-wave hum of the whole universe can't be detected2023
The opioid overdose antidote is a prescription medication2023
The world is in a COVID-19 public health emergency2023
There is no pill for postpartum depression2023
There is no vaccine for RSV2023
Tyrannosaurus rex bared its huge teeth like a crocodile2023
We will never know what killed Beethoven2022
A computer cannot create an original image from a written description2022
A fusion reaction has never produced more energy than was put in2022
A proton is made of exactly three quarks2022
All bacteria are microscopic, invisible to the naked eye2022
Computers can't understand ordinary language2022
Earth's rotation only ever slows down; days keep getting longer2022
If an asteroid were headed for Earth, there is nothing we could do2022
Take a low-dose aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks2022
Take a vitamin D supplement to protect your bones from fractures2022
The country is spelled Turkey2022
The Hubble Deep Field is the deepest image of the universe we have2022
The human genome was fully sequenced in 20032022
The Inca city is named Machu Picchu2022
There are five billion people on Earth2022
We can infer our galaxy's central black hole, but we'll never see it2022
You cannot transplant an animal's heart into a living person2021
A time crystal would be perpetual motion, so it cannot exist2021
DNA is too fragile to survive more than a few hundred thousand years2021
Gene editing can only be done to cells removed from the body2021
Only professionally trained astronauts can go to orbit2021
Only the United States has ever operated a rover on Mars2021
Powered flight is impossible in Mars's thin atmosphere2021
Predicting a protein's shape from its sequence is an unsolved problem2021
Scientists disagree about whether humans are warming the planet2021
The Earth has four oceans2021
The first people reached the Americas about 13,000 years ago2021
There is no prescription drug that produces major, lasting weight loss2021
There is no vaccine for malaria2021
There is no way to make breathable oxygen on Mars2021
Vikings reached America 'around the year 1000, maybe'2021
We can only guess at the minerals deep in the mantle2020
'Irregardless' is not a word2020
A computer cannot write prose you would mistake for a human's2020
A little added sugar in a baby's food is harmless2020
Betelgeuse's sudden dimming means it is about to explode2020
Electric cars are a curiosity that will never be practical2020
Magnetic north sits in the Canadian Arctic2020
Mount Everest is 29,028 feet high2020
No antiviral drug has ever been approved to treat a coronavirus2020
No dinosaur was built for swimming2020
No vaccine has ever been made from messenger RNA2020
Nobody knows what causes fast radio bursts2020
Nobody knows where Stonehenge's giant stones came from2020
Put two spaces after a period2020
Renewable energy will always be too expensive to compete2020
The country is called Holland2020
There is no cure or approved treatment for Ebola2019
A kilogram is defined by a metal cylinder in Paris2019
Black holes are a theoretical prediction we can never see2019
Macedonia2019
The Amazon produces 20 percent of the world's oxygen2018
Neanderthals were dim brutes who died out because we were smarter2018
Swaziland2018
The ozone hole is growing and there's nothing to be done2017
'They' is plural, never use it for one person2017
Modern humans appeared about 200,000 years ago in East Africa2017
Recycling solves the plastic problem2017
There are seven continents2017
There are ten types of cloud2016
Bacteria in your body outnumber your own cells ten to one2016
Computers will keep doubling in speed every two years, forever2016
Go is too complex for computers to master2016
Gravitational waves are predicted but undetectable2016
Sunflowers always turn to follow the sun2016
The periodic table ends around element 1092015
Brontosaurus never existed2015
Eating cholesterol raises your blood cholesterol2015
Keep peanuts away from young children to prevent allergies2015
Margarine is the heart-healthy choice2015
Pluto is a blurry smudge and always will be2015
Treat a sprain with RICE: rest, ice, compression, elevation2014
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day2014
The Aral Sea is the fourth largest lake in the world2013
'Literally' can never mean 'figuratively'2013
No human object has left the solar system2013
Richard III's grave was lost forever2013
Shake off a head knock and get back in the game2013
You are left-brained or right-brained2012
98% of your DNA is useless junk2012
The Higgs boson is hypothetical and may not exist2012
You won't always have a calculator in your pocket2011
Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis2011
Farming came first, then villages, then temples2011
Save your work to a floppy disk2011
Sudan is Africa's largest country2011
The Food Pyramid is how you should eat2011
Tongue rolling is a simple dominant trait2011
Tonsils should come out if they give you trouble2010
Humans and Neanderthals never interbred2010
Playing Mozart to babies makes them smarter2010
Spinach is exceptionally high in iron because of a decimal point error2010
The MMR vaccine might cause autism2010
You must master cursive or you'll never manage in adult life2009
I before E except after C2009
The Moon is completely dry2009
You have a learning style, and teaching to it helps2008
Chameleons change color to match their background2008
Mars is a dry, dead world with no water2008
The Milky Way has four spiral arms2008
Yugoslavia is a country2007
A powerful computer fills a room2007
Always stretch before exercise to prevent injury2007
Grief has five stages2007
The appendix is a useless leftover2006
Ceres is the largest asteroid2006
New words don't just get invented2006
Pluto is the ninth planet2005
Never trust Wikipedia, use the encyclopedia2005
Stand in a doorway during an earthquake2005
Tutankhamun was murdered by a blow to the head2005
Wait 30 minutes after eating before you swim2004
Human evolution was a straight march of progress2004
Learn Pascal (or BASIC) because that's what programming is2004
Two-dimensional materials cannot exist2003
Goldfish have a three-second memory2003
Humans have around 100,000 genes2003
The Great Wall of China is visible from space2003
The universe is 10 to 20 billion years old2003
The universe is made of the stuff on the periodic table2002
East Timor is part of Indonesia2002
Suck the venom out of a snakebite2002
The Earth is a sphere2002
You cannot fold a piece of paper more than seven times2002
You must drink eight glasses of water a day2001
Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras2000
Humans have five senses2000
There are four basic tastes2000
Tilt your head back for a nosebleed2000
You only use 10% of your brain1999
Hong Kong is a British colony1998
Get antibiotics for that cold1998
Glass is a liquid that flows very slowly1998
Napoleon was unusually short1998
Neutrinos have no mass1998
Never end a sentence with a preposition1998
Never split an infinitive1998
Open your windows when a tornado approaches1998
Reference books are how you find things out1998
The internet is an academic curiosity, not a place to do business1998
The universe's expansion is slowing down1998
You cannot grow new brain cells1997
No computer will ever beat a chess grandmaster1997
The first Americans were the Clovis people, 13,000 years ago1997
Zaire1996
Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago1996
Dinosaurs were scaly, sluggish reptiles1995
Bulls charge at the color red1995
Diamonds are made from coal under pressure1995
Houseflies only live for 24 hours1995
No planets have been found outside our solar system1995
Sugar makes children hyperactive1995
The Dark Ages1995
There are three states of matter1995
Your deoxygenated blood is blue1994
Ulcers are caused by stress and spicy food1993
Czechoslovakia is a country1993
Different parts of your tongue taste different things1993
Ethiopia has a coastline1992
Crystals cannot have five-fold symmetry1992
Put babies to sleep on their stomachs1991
Columbus proved the Earth was round1991
Eskimos have a hundred words for snow1991
Nobody knows what killed the dinosaurs1991
The Soviet Union is one country1990
Bats are blind1990
Camels store water in their humps1990
Carrots give you excellent night vision1990
Gutenberg invented printing1990
Life is divided into five kingdoms1990
Lightning never strikes the same place twice1990
Marie Antoinette said 'let them eat cake'1990
Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when frightened1990
The pyramids were built by slaves1990
The Salem witches were burned at the stake1990
There are two Germanys1990
Vikings wore horned helmets1989
Dogs see in black and white1989
Saturn is the only planet with rings1989
The country is called Burma1987
Summer happens when Earth is closer to the Sun1987
Superconductors only work within a few degrees of absolute zero1986
The giant panda is not really a bear1985
The Titanic sank in one piece1983
Lemmings commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs1983
The meter is defined by a metal bar in Paris1968
Continental drift is an interesting but unproven theory1961
'Ain't' isn't a word either