Series

Myth or fact?

Widely repeated beliefs, checked one at a time: which hold up, which do not, and which are half right.

21 articles

Animal Body Oddities

Three hearts, cube-shaped droppings, feet that taste: the strangest real equipment in the animal kingdom, in a reading order.

10 articles

Things You Were Taught Wrong

Lightning, the Great Wall, raw cashews and a stomach that is not the one rumbling: popular beliefs that turn out to be wrong, and what is true instead.

11 articles

Impossible-Sounding Science

A teaspoon that weighs a billion tons, a metal that melts in your hand, sharks older than trees: true science that sounds made up.

9 articles

Everyday Things With Strange Origins

Bubble wrap that was meant to be wallpaper, a jigsaw that was a geography lesson, a word born in a Czech play: the odd beginnings of ordinary things.

12 articles