We’ve all felt what it’s like to go to work after a night of terrible sleep. It’s not ideal. Last year, one CEO decided to tackle this issue head-on in a rather unconventional way. While appearing on the 20VC podcast, Matan Grinberg, who left a PhD program in theoretical physics to found Factory, an AI startup, shared that he gave each of his 30 employees at the time a $3,000 Eight Sleep mattress cover, which can cool or heat to the ideal temperature an individual needs for quality sleep.  On a purely biological level, this decision is pretty common sense. Sleep directly powers the brain’s capacity for logic, focus, decision-making, and impulse control. Without adequate rest, this area struggles, leading to impaired risk assessment, making choices on autopilot, and a reduced ability to learn from negative consequences. None of this makes for great productivity or deep thought. And for a tech startup especially, these elements are vital. Therefore, for Grinberg, it’s a necessary investment.  “It is worth every dollar to make [employees] more productive and to deliver on these ambitious goals that we have,” he said. Grinberg predicted that future successful companies will “treat teams like professional athletes.” View this post on Instagram While Grinberg joked that the mattresses were an example of “the decadence of startups,” they really point toward a possible shift in workplace attitudes that isn’t necessarily decadent at all, though it is unorthodox. Just as athletes require their bodies to recover as efficiently as possible through diet, massages, ice baths, etc., so too will employees have benefits that allow for optimal intellectual recovery. In an interview with Business Insider, Grinberg said he also opts for snacks that have a heftier price tag but encourage focus, like protein chips and canned matcha. This is slightly more intentional than the days of Google’s beginnings, when employees received lavish yet unrelated-to-output perks like bounce castles (yes, that was a real thing), Grinberg explained. View this post on Instagram This “treating your team like athletes” mentality goes hand in hand with the general reexamination of “hustle culture.” More and more people are redefining productivity not in terms of how many working hours were spent, but in terms of how much output was actually accomplished. Lo and behold, it’s often been the very things we were once told make us productive—standardized workweeks, coming into an office, and not prioritizing an employee’s physical well-being—that negatively impact this output for many, if not most, of us. And while it’s awesome that visionary startup leaders like Grinberg see the need for these types of innovations, one can’t help but wonder how this could manifest for frontline and service workers as well. Sure, the idea of company-provided sleep technology may feel out of reach for many industries, but the underlying principle is far more universal. Whether someone writes code, stocks shelves, serves tables, or works a hospital shift, people tend to perform better when their physical and mental well-being is supported. If more employers begin viewing recovery as an investment rather than an expense, the benefits could extend far beyond the startup world. Watch the full episode below: The post Physicist-turned-tech CEO bought his 30 employees a $3,000 cooling mattress cover to boost productivity appeared first on Upworthy.

Vincent van Gogh’s work is instantly recognizable. Those swirling skies, the vibrant sunflowers, and the thick, heavy layers of paint that give his canvas a three-dimensional look. His boundary-pushing style captivates art lovers and historians alike. But as it turns out, the legendary Dutch Post-Impressionist left behind a truly unique signature. And no, we’re not talking about his name scrawled in the corner of a canvas. Photo credit: Public domain – Van Gogh's "Café Terrace at Night" Thanks to incredible breakthroughs in modern technology, scientists have uncovered an exciting new way to recognize an original Van Gogh with complete precision. It all starts with close-up scans of his distinctive brushstroke patterns, but that’s only the beginning. Let’s paint you a picture. Decoding the mathematics of a masterpiece Identifying a real Van Gogh has traditionally relied on expert analysis, historical records and documentation, and a lot of detective work. More recently, chemical analysis of paint has helped the art world get closer to the truth of the matter, but that hasn’t stopped clever fraudsters from trying to pass off convincing forgeries as the real thing. That is, until a team of brilliant researchers at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France stepped in. Instead of looking at what was painted, the scientists wanted to measure how it was painted. They started by using advanced digital mapping technology to analyze the surface texture of eight of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings. They looked at the three-dimensional ridges, peaks, and valleys that his brushwork and paints left on the canvas. What they discovered is absolutely mind-blowing.  Van Gogh painted wheatfields in the weeks before his death. Van Gogh’s “impasto” technique (applying paint thickly so that the brushstrokes remain clearly visible) is almost like a fingerprint. How he applied pressure, moved his hand, and layered his paint created a distinct mathematical pattern. Think of it like an artistic algorithm. It’s called a fractal score; it’s a mathematical equation scientists use to authenticate Van Gogh’s paintings. Every artist has a subconscious rhythm to their movement and technique, and Van Gogh’s is so specific that his fractal score identifies his work with incredible accuracy. To catch an artistic thief Here’s where we start to dip into the internet’s favorite subgenre: true crime. Van Gogh’s work was not appreciated while he was alive. His fame grew after his suicide in 1890. As a result, quite a few “lost masterpieces” are passed off as legitimate works over the years. “Sunset at Montmajour” was supposedly one of those “lost works” of Van Gogh. There was documentation that the artist had spent time near Arles, the setting for this landscape piece. He even described the area in a letter dated two years before his death. The painting, purchased in 1908, is left to rot in an attic. Over 100 years later, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam authenticated “Sunset…” by relying on that letter, plus a chemical analysis of the canvas and paint pigments. But would it pass the scientific fractal score test?  Yes. The physical texture of the brushstrokes fell comfortably inside the reference range. Art and science backed each other up. Sunset at Montmajour, painted in 1888. (Media Credit: Wikimedia Commons) A small oil-on-wood panel, titled “The Plowmen,” was discovered in Paris in the 1990s. The press suspected the painting was a fake. In the early 2000s, the Van Gogh Museum rejected it as a clever imitation. When the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France finally had an opportunity to conduct a fractal analysis on “The Plowmen,” it scored far outside Van Gogh’s established fractal range. Once again, the tech confirmed what the experts believed: the painting was not his—they caught a forgery red-handed! By blending art and technology, science is working to make sure that future art lovers will know that the Van Gogh’s works they see are the genuine article. It’s also going to make it a whole lot harder to be in the art forgery business. The post Scientists found Vincent van Gogh’s hidden ‘fingerprint’ and it’s catching art forgers red-handed appeared first on Upworthy.

Second only perhaps to Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus is the most recognizable painting of the Renaissance. This depiction of the Roman goddess, standing atop a seashell, contained all the qualities found most beautiful in the time period: pale skin, flowing gold hair, and a soft gaze in the eyes.   Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli. Brittannica Botticelli based this rendering on a real-life woman, and one who met an untimely end. Researchers now believe that his paintings unwittingly provided clues to how this tragedy occurred.  Simonetta Vespucci: noblewoman, icon, and tragic heroine Nicknamed “La Sans Par,” or “The Unrivalled,” Simonetta Vespucci was, essentially, the “it girl” of Renaissance Italy. It is widely believed that her beauty was so inspiring that she was the muse of several Florentine painters. But none more so than Botticelli, who has at least six works centered around women with similar features.  Simonetta died in 1476 in Florence at only 23 years old. Previously, the cause of death was thought to be tuberculosis. However, scientists from Queen Mary University of London were able to confirm that the actual cause was a brain tumor.  More specifically, Simonetta may have experienced the rapid growth of a tumor in her pituitary gland. The growth leads to bleeding or swelling, which in turn can cause headaches, hallucinations, vomiting, and high fever. All of these symptoms were written about in letters detailing Simonetta’s final days.  Pictures really are worth a thousand words Other hints were in Botticelli’s paintings, assuming that he was, in fact, painting Simonetta. For example, in “Allegorical Portrait of a Woman,” she is shown lactating, despite never having children. Which is a “surprising way to portray her,” said study co-author and diabetes researcher Dr. Paolo Pozzilli. That is, until you factor in that another symptom of this diagnosis is an excess of hormones that can cause spontaneous milk discharge.  Allegorical Portrait of a Woman, Sandro Botticelli. Meisterdrucke Fine Art Finally, the researchers put five of Simonetta’s portraits through AI-assisted analysis, which confirmed their years-long theory. Even that distinctly ethereal, yet aloof stare we see in Venus likely points to this diagnosis.  “It’s also possible that the irregular eye positioning in the Birth of Venus  -the ‘strabismus’ or squint later considered a trait of piety and beauty  – may be caused by the pituitary tumour,” said the study.  A close-up of Venus Wikipedia Most tragic of all, the researchers noted that the event which likely kicked off this fatal medical emergency was either dancing or a suspected rape by a notoriously cruel Duke. In other words, her end came by a great night or by a truly terrible one.  Many believe that Botticelli felt more than artistic infatuation for his ill-fated muse. And when you consider that he requested to be buried at her feet when he died in 1510…it certainly seems plausible.   This brings a new layer of depth to a piece already so well-known What Botticelli may have intended as a tribute to Simonetta’s beauty could also have become an unintended record of her demise. That’s what’s so captivating about his work, really. Each painting contains not only inexorable beauty, but countless hidden stories waiting to be told.  The post Study finds that Venus’s alluring stare in Botticelli’s most famous painting may have pointed to a tragic diagnosis appeared first on Upworthy.

The 2026 World Cup has brought the world together in the most delightful and unexpected ways. We’ve seen story after story from what’s been coined “The Great American Sleepover,” as people from different countries and cultures celebrate the joy of international sport together. One beautiful example of this joy came in the wake of one of the most talked-about games of the tournament: Spain vs. Cabo Verde. Spain is one of the top teams predicted to win the whole shebang. Cabo Verde, a tiny country off the west coast of Africa, is competing in its first World Cup ever. By all accounts, it should have been an easy win for Spain, but the Cabo Verde team defied all odds. In an impressively skilled showing, they held Spain to zero points, with the game ending in a 0-0 tie. A simple shirt swap becomes an enthusiastic love fest At the end of the game, a fan from Spain showed his respect for the Cabo Verde team by asking a Cabo Verde fan to swap jerseys. The two men were about the same size, and the exchange turned from a simple shirt swap into a beautiful hug fest between perfect strangers. Watch: @thewalkingbookclub The man behind us gestured that he wanted to swap jerseys with the man below us. When the man with the Spain jersey got down there they hugged, and the man from Cabo Verde was so touched and honored that the man wanted to wear his country’s jersey. It was incredible, and real, and if I wasn’t on lexapro I would have been bawling for sure! #caboverde #spain #worldcup #fifa @FIFA World Cup #soccer ♬ World Cup Song 2026 – DJ Twilight The video was shared by @thewalkingbookclub with the story: “The man behind us gestured that he wanted to swap jerseys with the man below us. When the man with the Spain jersey got down there they hugged, and the man from Cabo Verde was so touched and honored that the man wanted to wear his country’s jersey. It was incredible, and real, and if I wasn’t on lexapro I would have been bawling for sure!” People in the comments loved seeing it, sharing how moments like this are what it’s all about: “I love when we human right .” “This World Cup is showing that people are not their Government. Everyone is representing their countries in such a beautiful way!” “I think most of us are tired of the hate and division. We’re looking for love and acceptance because it’s just time for it!” “The World Cup is healing the world. Love and unity.” “This is what the world should be!!! Thank you!!! What an example!!! ” @thewalkingbookclub Replying to @Kuzko #caboverde #spain #worldcup #fifa #soccer ♬ original sound – TheWalkingBookClub “The World Cup is giving me so much hope that I haven’t felt in such a long time as an American. Love it so much!” “I love that they could have thrown the jerseys to one another, but that man climbed down so they could embrace!!!! I am sobbing with hope in my heart that this brings so much healing to us all. The World Cup is everything good!!!!” Sports competition proves rivals don’t have to be enemies One of the best parts of team sports is that they offer people a way to feel part of a group identity, which humans tend to gravitate towards. But sports allow for rivalries between those identities to exist in a space of good fun. As long as people don’t take it too seriously, fandom can become a way to bond, even with those we see as temporary rivals. A crowded stadium for a soccer match (Photo credit: Canva) When we respect the competition, we can come out of a tough match-up even closer to one another. The World Cup is reminding us that when we remove the politics, politicians, media narratives, and social media negativity, we really are just one big family. The post Spain fan asked to swap jerseys with Cabo Verde fan at the World Cup. Pure wholesomeness ensued. appeared first on Upworthy.

Raising a family of three isn’t easy. Now try to be a new father in front of 20 million social media followers. Taylor Dudley and his wife Kay Dudley have grown their accounts—and their family—all at the same time. The couple first met in Oklahoma, but in 2022, they decided to record and post their everyday life as an experiment. It wasn’t long before things took off under the moniker of “Kay and Tay.” Upworthy spoke to him about all things “Dad” for Father’s Day. Upworthy: How do you wrap your mind around all this popularity? Is this what you envisioned happening, or do you view it more as a happy, wonderful miracle?  Taylor: I think there’s definitely some strategy to it. I don’t lean too heavily into trying to grow a raw follower count or anything—that’s not my end goal. For Kay and me, the ultimate goal is to document our day. I think that’s what resonates with people. Your intentions come through in the content, whether you want them to or not. If you’re just thirsty for followers, it’s going to show up. And since we’re not that way, I think that people feel that genuine connection.  Upworthy: Lately on your channels, we’ve seen everything from finding a crack in your home’s window frame to teaching one of your daughters the alphabet for the first time. It made me wonder: do you have a “typical fan” who tunes into you? And who would that be? Taylor: When you get to this size of following, it kind of hits everyone at that point. We have grandparents who watch us, teenagers, parents—it’s kind of all over the place. There are no expectations. We could find something by our window that needs to be remedied, and the next day, we’re just playing with a new toy. The way Kay and I like to do it, we just post the most fun moment of the day. The rest of the day becomes our stories on Instagram, and that is less edited. It does well because it’s natural.  @kayandtayofficial Her “uhm no thanks” backstory ::: Kay has really wanted to start getting Ellie ready for pre-school, so she got a bunch of activities for Ellie to do to help her learn! We decided to start calling it school, and we’d do a few of them each day. Ellie is so excited and since then she’s been asking to do school over and over! I am so excited for Ellie to start learning so much! She’s so smart and is always wanting to learn more! it’s hard to think that she’s 2 and a half! #kayandtayofficial #couples #relationships ♬ original sound – Kay and Tay Upworthy: I assume that a fair number of influencers or lifestyle vloggers start their day asking, “How do we make something special happen?” Your philosophy has always been to just film, and you see what happens. Do you ever feel the pressure that you might come up short?  Taylor: No, I think that’s the beauty of not having expectations. People seem to enjoy the mundane. I never know what the video will be. Yesterday, we got invited to the new Universal Kids Resort in Frisco, TX. And so, I knew the video was probably going to be us walking around that resort. If something interesting is happening, you hit record and point the camera in that direction. It’s funny. I’ve done this so long now that I don’t even look at the camera when I’m recording. My hand naturally knows what to do. I don’t know how else to describe it. You know the audience is seeing the same thing I’m seeing.  @kayandtayofficial Should we open up our walls? backstory ::: Kay was dusting the baseboards, which we haven’t done in a long time, and she noticed something behind a blanket basket in our room. The window looks like it is separating and there is a dark spot in the corner of the window! We decided to start looking around at other windows and found another spot on one more window! Now we are worried that we may be dealing with a mold problem! So we are going to have to figure out who we need to call to get this looked at! We have been sleeping next to this window, so hopefully it hasn’t been there long! #kayandtayofficial #couples #relationships ♬ original sound – Kay and Tay Upworthy: Part of the appeal for your audience must be your openness as a family. Taylor: Oh yeah, definitely. I like to say that my job is just being a dad. It’s the best job you could have. I’m like, the VHS Dads of the ’90s and early 2000s who brought camcorders to Christmas and just recorded everyone. My dad was a big VHS Dad. I think of myself as the 2020s version of that. I’m just recording those things every day, and I get to look back at them. It’s cool because there are so many memories I’ve forgotten, but then I can go back, watch them, and they come back to me. I can’t think of a better job in the world, to be honest.  @kayandtayofficial She will always be daddy’s little girl… #kayandtayofficial #couples #relationships ♬ original sound – Kay and Tay Upworthy: You’re also just a dad who wants the best for your kids. You’re trying to educate and engage with them on their level. Do you have to think about that balance? Taylor: There’s definitely a balance to it and a lot of overlap. When we’re playing with Ellie, a minute of that might be me recording it, and the next 10 to 15 minutes might just be me playing, you know? It overlaps a lot when it comes to editing a video and preparing it for socials. I like to do that kind of stuff when they’re napping. It’s a game of optimizing the maximum amount of dad and husband time I can have, while leaving time for creating content and putting the day’s journey online. There’s no hard line. I like to call it “milestone content.” I like to reach a point where I feel I’ve documented that day well enough.  Upworthy: You mentioned the VHS Dad thing—that you inherited that from your father. Do you think you inherited other parts of his parenting style? Taylor: Oh, for sure. I mean, my, like, love for the camera. That started when I was a kid, from my dad. He would film Christmas and birthdays, and I always thought that was so interesting. Plugging in the Hi8 tapes to watch them on TV. That’s a hobby that was definitely passed down to me.  Upworthy: And what about some traits that you have that you hope might pass down to your kids? Taylor: I want Ellie to be brave. For example, a lot of kids can be scared of bugs, but I like to go hands-on with [my kids] and say, “Look, you know, this is nothing to be afraid of.” My wife, Kay, is terrified of bugs. But Ellie, she’s like, “Whatever—it’s a bug. I’m not scared.” Yesterday, we were at the new Universal Kids Resort, and there’s a rollercoaster she met the height requirement for. Which is crazy to think about because she’s 2 and a half. And so we were like, “Let’s try it.” She watched it go around and didn’t seem leery. So, we let her ride, and she loved it! She wanted to ride it over and over again. We could have a thrill seeker, a little roller coaster kid. Those are experiences that will shape her. View this post on Instagram Upworthy: Kay & Tay is dipping its toes into additional branding opportunities besides your social media content. For instance, Kay has a popular line of leather goods as well as your line of high-end HyrdoJug water bottles featuring your family’s pastel aesthetic. Taylor: Yes, we started a brand recently, and there’s a lot of work that goes into that. If you create a viral product everyone wants, you might end up winning financially, but I find making the videos every day much more rewarding. So yeah, I’m fully content with the kind of lifestyle that we have. If we made content that was more performative, that wasn’t who we naturally are, that’s where I feel like you run into that fatigue that a lot of people get in this industry. But because we’re just being ourselves and doing what we would have done that day anyway—plus a camera—it rarely feels like work, to be honest.  View this post on Instagram Upworthy: With your kids, you have an interesting spread of ages at home. You have a teen [Kinsley] who’s not on-camera, plus a toddler and a baby. That’s three very different phases of life to parent. How do you juggle all of that?  Taylor: Kay helps a lot, but having two babies is a handful. She ends up focusing on Sutton since she’s breastfeeding. And then I end up helping with Ellie. For example, my wife Kay is 5 feet tall, and Ellie’s getting bigger, so like getting her in PJs and up into bed—it’s a lot. Kinsley is going into high school, so she’s kind of doing everything herself. She’s making decisions at this point. That’s where the balance changes a little bit. There’s kind of enrichment for each one. Kinsley likes to hit the volleyball outside or swim in the pool, so you have to make time for that. Sutton is happy to just have me set three different toys down in front of her so she can wiggle them back and forth in her hand. Ellie is somewhere in between, where she is just running everywhere. So, you need to make sure you’re giving each child attention in their own way, in ways they enjoy.  Upworthy: How do you see your life, family, and relationships changing over time with this job?  Taylor: Our content’s very natural and in the moment. We’ve always said that if the kids aren’t interested, they don’t have to be here. It’s not something that they’re like signed up for, you know? Kinsley, for example, has no interest in it, and that’s completely fine. I just don’t point the camera in her direction. And the same goes for Ellie. Some days, we’re filming something, and Ellie’s just running around nowhere near the camera. There’s no script or rhyme or reason to it. So, as they get older, if they’re like, “I’m playing in my room with Legos, and I don’t really want to film,” that’s perfectly fine with me. Like I said, there’s no expectation in our audience. I’m confident that I could put anything up, and if we’re being ourselves and having a good time, and I can show you the emotions that we’re feeling that day, it would continue to perform well.  Upworthy: Father’s Day is coming up. If you had one piece of fatherly advice to pass on, what would that be?  Taylor: My best advice is to take in every moment. I get to be a part of it because I’m at home all the time, but it’s still never enough. And so, take in all those little moments and enjoy them. As you were saying, they only grow forward. Ellie has outgrown so many things that she’ll never do again, and the only memory I have of that is those videos. Everyone’s growing up at the same time. Your kids are growing up, but you are also growing up, and we all only live once. You have to make the most of it, you know. Celebrate it a little bit.  @kayandtayofficial Ellie’s ABC song! backstory ::: Ellie got a new microphone because her old one broke, and when she talked into the new one for the first time, Sutton laughed so hard! Every time Ellie would say anything in the mic, Sutton would start giggling so much. It was so cute watching them bond and watching Sutton try her hardest to get over to Ellie so she could talk into it! Ellie loves being silly, and so it just made her day to make Sutton laugh like that! It’s so cute watching Sutton finally be old enough to play with her sister! #kayandtayofficial #couples #relationships ♬ original sound – Kay and Tay This interview has been edited for time and clarity.  The post ‘kayandtay’ dad Taylor Dudley opens up about the tricky balance between parent and content creator appeared first on Upworthy.