Baby booties to orthopedic sandals, we spend most of our waking lives in shoes, and from them we may learn something about our culture, our history, and ourselves.

A new analysis of toe bones suggests that ancient people from Europe and the Middle East were the first to adopt supportive footwear—most likely primitive sandals—around 30,000 years ago.

Math-phobes of the world, take heart! You might not have realized it, but you've been acing at least one math problem each morning since the day you gave up Velcro.