News

We’re told a number of stories as kids. There’s the one about pulling a face for too long and having it stick that way, or the myth that Australian toilets flush backwards; some of us are even cruelly told that Santa isn’t real, despite ample evidence to the contrary. One of the more harmless of […]

The U.S. Defense Department issued a memo on Feb. 17, 2023, warning service members to avoid eating poppy seeds because doing so may result in a positive urine test for the opiate codeine. Addiction and pain medicine specialist Gary Reisfield explains what affects the opiate content of poppy seeds and how they could influence drug […]

Science fiction writers have often preempted many modern scientific and technological developments, from credit cards and mobile phones, to military tanks and even antidepressants. But now two sci-fi writers have teamed up with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to help imagine what the wars of tomorrow will look like.  The authors, Peter Warren Singer […]

The Carnac stones have inspired stories and fueled myths for thousands of years. Along the south coast of Brittany in northwestern France, an unassuming field is studded with around 3,000 ancient megaliths. Their original purpose, however, remains a total mystery. The Carnac stones were likely placed during the Neolithic era before the advent of agriculture […]

This article first appeared in Issue 5 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. Watch out, old book enthusiasts – your collection might be poisoned. Starting with just one suspicious green tome that turned out to contain arsenic, the Winterthur Poison Book Project has so far identified a further 101 arsenic-tainted books out in the world, […]

It’s not long since physical books were expected to be on their way out, replaced by digital readers for all but an eccentric few. The truth has turned out to be very different, and it’s likely an appreciation of the smell of old books has played a part. The smell of old books has been […]

A Jurassic-era lacewing that’s been MIA for 50 years was plucked from inside the façade of an Arkansas Walmart. It’s the first record of the species ever in the state, and the first seen in half a century since the species mysteriously disappeared from North America back in the 1950s. The Walmart-dwelling specimen was actually […]

Pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly has announced they will be capping the out-of-pocket cost of their insulin to just $35 a month, a stark difference to the high fees many are currently paying. The move will bring the price in line with a January provision that capped insulin to $35 a month for seniors, called the […]

Back in 2019, a diamond within a diamond was unearthed at a mine in the Sakha Republic of Siberia by the Russian mining company ALROSA. Owing to its unusual features, it was named the “Matryoshka Diamond” after Russia’s iconic stacking dolls. Inside the lentil-sized diamond, measuring just 4.8 by 4.9 by 2.8 millimeters (0.189 by […]

Archaeologists have discovered ancient ice skates made of animal bones in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region of northwest China. Announcing the incredible find at a recent press conference, researchers said the ancient skates were created from ox and horse bones are likely to be 3,500 years old. Located at the intersection of China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan […]

A team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the state of Michigan, and the Ocean Exploration Trust have found and explored the wreck of the Ironton, confirming tragic reports of the ship’s demise. The Ironton, a three-masted wooden schooner that transported goods through the Great Lakes, sank in September, 1894. The larger […]

Have you ever been so shocked that all you could do was stand there – some might say with a deer in the headlights look? If you’ve ever used that phrase or witnessed a deer doing this in real life, you might find yourself asking “why do deer freeze in headlights?” Well, we’re here to […]

On December 7, 185 CE, during the Han dynasty, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a “guest star” appearing in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri. “Guest star” is the name that these ancient astronomers used for luminous transient events. Today, we call them supernovas. SN 185 is the oldest recorded supernova, and now a new […]

The world’s smallest diamond thief was thwarted during a heist where an ant tried to make off with a diamond back in 2018. Though bold, the effort wasn’t terribly thought through, taking place in full view of a person working with several gemstones in full light – but we commend this tiny insect’s brazenness all […]

In the early morning of July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb detonation ripped through the dusty deserts of New Mexico, shooting an 11,500-meter (~38,000-foot) mushroom cloud into the air. Amidst the untold destruction caused by the nuclear test, known as Trinity, the explosion also created something quite remarkable: “forbidden” quasicrystals that challenge some […]

Perovskite solar cells have developed extraordinarily fast, going from a curiosity to the hottest area of solar research in the space of a few years. After overcoming a series of barriers one major problem has remained; their durability. A paper in Nature Materials reports a novel solution. It comes less than a fortnight after two […]

Ridley Scott’s Alien might have you believe that there is no sound in space. Well, there’s no human scream the average able-bodied human can hear, but sound waves move through space, shaking the plasma across the stars and even across the galaxies. Sounds are, after all, mechanical waves, so a wave moving through a medium. […]

TikTok has announced new default settings that will be added to under-18s’ accounts as part of parental guidance controls, including one that will limit their screen time to 60 minutes per day. The settings can be turned off, but will be activated by default when the update arrives.  “In the coming weeks, every account belonging […]

At 10:02 am on August 27, 1883, an island in Indonesia collapsed as tsunamis sent 46-meter (151-foot) waves tearing into the ocean as far as South Africa. It marks the moment in history that the infamous Krakatoa volcano erupted, kicking off what’s thought to have been the loudest sound ever. Krakatoa once sat midway between […]

If you’ve ever played 20 Questions, chances are you’ve come across the starting phrase: animal, vegetable, or mineral? But in which category would you put a pearl? Pearls might be the queen of gems and the gem of queens according to Grace Kelly, but what are they technically classed as? Unlike the average gemstone found […]