We’ll never look at potatoes the same way again.

Illustration by Marc David Spengler

December 27, 2025, 8 AM ET

The Atlantic’s Science, Technology, and Health desk has had a busy 2025: Our writers have spent the year probing the limits of human consciousness and gene-editing technology, studying the ubiquity of microplastics, investigating the origins of a mysterious ALS outbreak, and even chasing down rubble from the White House’s demolished East Wing. Our reporting has led us to a number of strange and delightful facts. In a year defined by slop, we hope these nuggets of reality inspire some genuine awe:

1. On average, women’s hands are more sensitive to warmth than men’s, some research suggests.

2. The U.S. releases 100 million sterile flies in Mexico every week.

3. A sea-slug species called Elysia chlorotica appears to perform photosynthesis. The slug eats algae, turns bright green, and spends the rest of its life converting light, water, and air into sugar, like a leaf.

4. The jingle for Pepsi-Cola was the most recognized tune in America in 1942, according to one survey.

5. Satellites can spot the hot breath geysering out of a single whale’s blowhole.

6. Some AI doomers aren’t saving money for retirement. If by then the world is fully automated (or we’re all dead), why bother with an IRA?

7. Scientists discovered—or created, depending on your perspective—a new color named “olo” this year. (Those who have seen it describe it as a sort of teal or a mix of blue and green.)

8. Modern potatoes likely descended from an ancient tomato plant.

   

9. By one calculation, spending on AI accounted for 92 percent of America’s GDP growth in the first half of 2025.

10. This year, a baby with a rare genetic condition became the first child to receive a customized CRISPR gene-editing treatment to fix his specific DNA mutation.

11. During the late 1800s, baseball players experimented with four-sided bats.

12. And in the early 1970s, Little League tried to prevent girls from playing baseball by saying that .