LATEST LONG-FORM:
Chronicles of Charnia
When an ancient, unexpected imprint is discovered in a stone quarry, scientists endeavor to explain its mysterious origin.
Written by Matt Castle • 01 July 2020 • Read/Listen →
Written by Matt Castle • 01 July 2020 • Read/Listen →
Long-Form:
The Spy of Night and Fog
Noor Khan, a pacifist descendant of Indian Royalty became a famed World War II spy for Britain’s Special Operations Executive.
Long-Form:
Radical Solutions
French mathematician Évariste Galois lived a full life. When he wasn't trying to overthrow the government, he was reinventing algebra.
Long-Form:
Private Wojtek’s Right to Bear Arms
One of Poland’s most beloved and honored World War II veterans was not Polish at all: he was a 500-pound brown bear named Wojtek.
Site News:
Permission to Grow
Beards have been banned in a number of military forces in history, from Qing Dynasty China to the modern-day Indian Army (apart from Sikhs). However cert...
Nugget:
Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar
Shortly after the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy summoned his press secretary Pierre Salinger to the presidential ...
Long-Form:
The Most Modern of Modern Sports
The secret runaway success of Kenneth Gandar-Dower’s racing cheetahs.
Site News:
A Pregnant Pause
In January of 1963, husband and wife George and Charlotte Blonsky submitted a patent application for a revolutionary invention. George, a mining engineer...
Nugget:
Every Breath You Take
In June of 1965, a 27-year-old gentleman by the name of Angus Barbieri checked himself into the Maryfield Hospital in Dundee, Scotland. His complaint was...
Nugget:
Schumann Resonances
Three times a day, every day--roughly 9am, 2pm, and 8pm Coordinated Universal Time--an extremely low frequency electromagnetic pulse races around the Ear...
Long-Form:
A Debaculous Fiasco
The most expensive, bizarre, and obscure work ever created by Dr. Seuss.
Nugget:
The Original Ghostbuster
In the early 1980s, a certain Mr. Vic Tandy found himself working for a medical device manufacturer in Warwick, in the county of Warwickshire, England. W...
Long-Form:
Drawing the Shorter Straw
Visionary Argentine filmmaker Quirino Cristiani created full-length animated films between 1917 and 1931. He has since been all but forgotten.
Nugget:
Involuntary Indefatigability
Only one fictional character has ever been honoured with a front-page obituary in the New York Times: Hercule Poirot, one of Agatha Christie's two recurr...
Long-Form:
The Curse of Konzo
In 1981, an international group of doctors identified the devastating disease behind a perplexing outbreak of paralysis in northern Mozambique.
Long-Form:
A Jarring Revelation
Amanda Theodosia Jones was a 19th-century poet, entrepreneur, and inventor who found inspiration in some unlikely places.
Nugget:
Scraping Bottom
When Germany was divided in two after the Second World War, military leaders recognized the need for liaison between the Soviet-occupied East Germany and...
01 July 2020
Bizarre new planet is largest known rocky world, 40 times as massive as Earth
nationalgeographic.com
On this day in 1959 a social psychologist brought together three mental patients who all believed they were Jesus Christ
damninteresting.com
What an ocean hidden under Antarctic ice reveals about our planet's future climate
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(see also)
theconversation.com
30 June 2020
On this day in 1971: a Soyuz spacecraft decompressed, exposing 3 cosmonauts to near-vacuum
damninteresting.com
Volcanoes may have helped life bounce back after dinosaur-killing asteroid strike
nationalgeographic.com
29 June 2020
Astronomers unknowingly dedicated moon craters to Nazis. Will the next historical reckoning be at cosmic level?
prospectmagazine.co.uk
28 June 2020
115 years ago today, one Dr. Beaurieux attempted to converse with a freshly severed head, for science
damninteresting.com
