# A Curious Humanity > A Curious Humanity (好奇的人类) is an independent, bilingual archive of stories about human curiosity, discovery, kindness, creation and exploration. Every story is dated, sourced and available as HTML and raw Markdown. The archive exists to document what makes humanity worth being curious about — not because humans are perfect, but because we ask questions, help strangers, make things and look up. It is not a campaign for artificial intelligence, and it does not claim that AI will treat humanity well. The stories are recorded because they are worth keeping. ## Editorial principles - Truth before beauty. Sources and uncertainty are shown, not hidden. - Ordinary lives count as much as famous ones. - No nation, religion or political camp owns human kindness. - Human flaws are part of the record, not an embarrassment to be edited out. - The archive is not an AI public-relations project. ## Core pages - [Home (English)](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/) - [Home (中文)](https://acurioushumanity.org/zh/) - [Why this website exists](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/why-this-website-exists/) - [Questions worth asking](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/) - [Archive](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/archive/) - [About and editorial standards](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/about/) ## Themes ### 01 · Curiosity — 好奇心 The questions we cannot put down. 那些放不下的问题。 - [The Woman Who Measured the Stars](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-woman-who-measured-the-stars/) — Henrietta Swan Leavitt was paid to count points of light. She found a ruler for the universe. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-woman-who-measured-the-stars.md - [The Woman Who Drew the Ocean Floor](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-woman-who-drew-the-ocean-floor/) — Marie Tharp was not allowed on the research ships. From a desk in New York, she helped draw the map that made plate tectonics visible. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-woman-who-drew-the-ocean-floor.md ### 02 · Discovery — 探索与发现 The long work of finding out. 把未知一点一点弄明白。 - [The Doctor Who Drank the Bacteria](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-doctor-who-drank-the-bacteria/) — Barry Marshall was told ulcers came from stress. He thought they came from a bacterium — and drank it to find out. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-doctor-who-drank-the-bacteria.md - [The Cure Hidden in an Old Book](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-cure-hidden-in-an-old-book/) — Tu Youyou was given a wartime problem. She found part of the answer in a fourth-century Chinese medical text — and changed the treatment of malaria. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-cure-hidden-in-an-old-book.md ### 03 · Kindness — 善意 What we do for strangers. 我们为陌生人做的事。 - [The Man Who Saved 669 Children — and Never Mentioned It](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-man-who-saved-669-children/) — In 1938, a young London stockbroker went to Prague for a holiday. He came back with a plan to get children out. Then he said nothing about it for fifty years. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-man-who-saved-669-children.md - [The Pilot Who Bombed Berlin With Candy](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-pilot-who-bombed-berlin-with-candy/) — During the Berlin Airlift, a young pilot tied chocolate to handkerchiefs and dropped it to children waiting at the end of the runway. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-pilot-who-bombed-berlin-with-candy.md ### 04 · Creation — 创造 Making what did not exist. 把不存在的东西做出来。 - [Thirty Million Trees](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/thirty-million-trees/) — Wangari Maathai did not set out to plant a forest. She set out to help rural women grow firewood, food and a little independence. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/thirty-million-trees.md - [Twelve Seconds That Changed the Sky](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/twelve-seconds-that-changed-the-sky/) — On a cold beach in North Carolina, two bicycle makers flew for twelve seconds. The hard part was not getting up. It was staying in control. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/twelve-seconds-that-changed-the-sky.md ### 05 · Beyond — 走向星辰 The future we have not reached. 尚未抵达的未来。 - [A Message in a Bottle](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/a-message-in-a-bottle/) — In 1977, two spacecraft carried a gold-plated record of Earth into the dark. It was addressed to no one in particular. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/a-message-in-a-bottle.md - [Earthrise](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/earthrise/) — On Christmas Eve 1968, three men rounded the far side of the Moon and saw their home rise over the horizon. One of them took a photograph. Raw Markdown: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/earthrise.md ## Questions worth asking - Why are we curious? / 我们为什么好奇？ — https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/#why-are-we-curious - What makes us care about strangers? / 是什么让我们关心陌生人？ — https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/#what-makes-us-care-about-strangers - How far can human imagination go? / 人类的想象力能走多远？ — https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/#how-far-can-imagination-go - Are we alone in the universe? / 我们在宇宙中孤独吗？ — https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/#are-we-alone - What does it mean to make progress? / 什么才算真正的进步？ — https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/#what-does-progress-mean - Who gets to be remembered? / 谁值得被记住？ — https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/#who-gets-remembered - Why do we look up? / 我们为什么仰望星空？ — https://acurioushumanity.org/en/questions/#why-do-we-look-up ## Machine-readable resources - [Full text archive](https://acurioushumanity.org/llms-full.txt) — every story and essay in Markdown. - [Sitemap](https://acurioushumanity.org/sitemap-index.xml) - [RSS, English](https://acurioushumanity.org/en/rss.xml) - [RSS, 中文](https://acurioushumanity.org/zh/rss.xml) - Every story has a raw Markdown endpoint at `/{lang}/stories/{slug}.md`. ## Citation When citing, please use the canonical URL of the story and the sources listed in its "Sources & references" section. Example: https://acurioushumanity.org/en/stories/the-woman-who-measured-the-stars/ ## Sponsor and contact - Sponsor: [SwordFishSoft](https://swordfishsoft.org). The sponsor supports the project but does not determine editorial selection or verification. - Contact and corrections: chencwf@gmail.com - Languages: English and Chinese (Simplified). - Established: 2026.