• Laser Beams Unveil Secrets Locked Inside Primitive Stone Spear Points
• New Study Reveals How the Neanderthals Made Super Glue 200,000 Years Ago: The World’s Oldest Known Synthetic Material
• Recreating the Glue Neanderthals Used to Make Weapons
• New Super-Glue Inspired by Slug Slim…
Peak Performance?
• This Tiny Bit of the Brain Helps You Stop Doing Things
• Smiling Could Improve Your Athletic Performance — But Your Grins Can’t Be Fake
• Let Your Mind Wander to Be Perform Better, Think More Creatively, and Manage Your Feelings
• The Best Brainstorming is Divergent
• What Even Are Those Pre-S…
Country Diary 5
• Country Diary 1917: Drizzle and the Dripping, Decaying Wood
• Country Diary: The Wood Pigeons Are on the Move
• Country Diary: Kingfisher Inspires Myth
• Country Diary: A Curious Tower Sends Me over the Edge
Country Diary 6
• Cracking on With the Walnut Harvest in Suffolk
• Country Diary: Autumn Is Particularly Busy for Red Squirrels of Formby
• Country Diary: Hand-Chiselled Headstones Speak in Rural Accents
• Country Diary: Pines That Went to Passchendaele
Tread Lightly, Grasshopper
• Watch a 17th-Century Portrait Magically Get Restored to Its Brilliant Original Colors
• Researchers Find Grasshopper Stuck in Classic Van Gogh Painting
• Tiny Grasshopper Found Hidden in Van Gogh Painting, 128 Years Later
• Dead Grasshopper Discovered in Vincent Van Gogh Painting
• Conservators Discover…
Aussie Trends
• Australians Vote to Name New Sydney Harbor Boat ‘Ferry McFerryface’
• Sydney Ferry Named Ferry McFerryface after ‘Boaty’ Rejected
• There Is Now a Ferry McFerryface Ferry, and the Crew Is Ticked
• Australian Pigeons Have a Specially Evolved Feather to Better Annoy the Heck Out O…
Book Business
• The Strawberry and Raspberry Hybrid Theory: Country Diary 100 Years Ago
• The 100 Best Nonfiction Books: No 85, Common Sense by Tom Paine (1776)
• How the Rise of Paperback Books Turned to Kill a Mockingbird into a Literary Classic
• How to Rescue a Wet Book
• How to Rescue a Wet, Dama…
From the Letter Bag
• One of World’s Most Prominent Scrabble Players Banned Temporarily for Cheating
• We Should Forgive Scrabble Cheats. Board Games Bring out the Worst in Us
• Double Letter Flaw: Champion Scrabble Player Banned amid Cheating Furore
• Family Board Games Set for Christmas Comeback
Meta-Implosions
• Georgia Dome Demolition Coverage Gets Wrecked in the Best Way Possible
• Cameraman Waits 40 Minutes for Historic Demolition – Only for Bus to Ruin His Shot with Impeccable Timing
• Bus Ruins TV Footage of Georgia Dome Demolition: ‘No Bus! Go Away!’
• Pontiac Silverdome Defies Explosives, and Twitter Snicker…
Glass of Water for Mr. Humphrys
• British Water Companies Are Searching for Leaks with Divining Rods and I’m So Angry I Could Cry
• Water Firms Backtrack on Admissions That They Use Divining Rods
• Water Companies Admit to Using ‘Divination’ in Order to Find Leaks
• ‘Dowsing Works,’ Says Humphrys Aft…
Feline Navidad
• Cats vs Christmas Trees Supercut Shows Felines at Their Holiday Worst
• Cat Crashes Nativity Scene
• Cat as Baby Jesus Is a Freakin’ Christmas Gift
• Grumpy Nativity-Scene Cat Accidentally Spreads Holiday Cheer
• Woman Finds Fox Squatting in Her Cat’s Bed
• Grandma Thinks She’s Been…
Sense of Hummer
• A Forgotten Underwater Sound Experiment Almost Changed How We Measure Global Warming
• Computers Learn to Use Sound to Find Ships
• Earth’s Most Mysterious Hums, Ranked
• Scientists Have Finally Caught the Eerie Hum of Earth Deep Under the Sea
• Earth’s Hum: Scientists t…
Taming the Wild Avocado
• Good News: A Microwaved Egg Can’t Permanently Damage Your Hearing
• What Happens When You Microwave a Boiled Egg
• Grocer Offers Stoneless Avocados to Avoid ‘Avocado Hand’
• Millennials, Rejoice: Seedless Avocados Are Here
• Hawaii Woman Hopes to Smash Avocado Record with…
What a Crab
• Amelia Earhart May Have Been Eaten by Three-Foot Crabs
• Was Amelia Earhart Eaten by Giant Land Crabs?
• Amazing Video Shows Coconut Crab Killing Bird in Brutal Fashion
• Giant Coconut Crab Seen Hunting Birds
• These Crabs Can Grow up to 3 Feet — And Hunt Birds, a Biologist’s Video Prove…
Exercise in Futility?
• Air Pollution Harm to Unborn Babies May Be Global Health Catastrophe, Warn Doctors
• Pollution Wipes out the Benefits of Exercise, Study Suggests
• Traffic Fumes in City Streets ‘Largely Wipe Out Exercise Benefits for Over-60s’
• Why Office Work Kills People’s Will to Exercise
• Is Your Core Strong Enough to Master the Invisible Box…
Country Diary 7
• The Village Working Together to Save Britain’s Turtle Doves
• Country Diary: Sleeping Beauty Knew a Thing or Two about Spindle’s Tempting Lipstick Berries
• Country Diary: Brief Encounter with a Woodcock in the Wildwood
• Country Diary: The Cold Is Bitter, But the Views Are Entrancing
• Country Diary: Even Reduced t…
Beachcombing
• ‘A Gift from the Sky’: Record-Breaking Nine-Hour Rainbow Appears in Taiwan
• The Men Collecting Stardust from Gutters and Rooftops
• The UK’s Impending Microbead Ban Has a Gray Area: Glitter
• To Save the Oceans, Should You Give up Glitter?
• All That Glitter? It’s Not Good, Critics Say
• Irish Beach That Vanished…
Country Diary 8
• ‘Having a Bit of a Tinker’: John Clarke, Birds, and the Daily Pleasure of Writing
• Country Diary: Return of the Parish Lengthsman
• Country Diary: Ringing the Changes in the Bird Population
• Country Diary 1967: Sniffing Out Birds at the Sewage Farm
• Country Diary: A Village History Told in Maps
Chess Whiz Renders World’s Best Toast
• Robots Aren’t Killing Jobs Fast Enough — And We Should Be Worried
• Robots Will Transform Fast Food
• Amazing Robot Table Uses Mechanical Actuators to Move Soccer Balls along Programmed Paths
• Google Taught an AI That Sorts Cat Photos to Analyze DNA
• The Dead-Serious Strategy…
European Charm Offensive
• Thousands of Strangers Have United to Buy This Abandoned French Castle
• For $61, You Can Become a Co-Owner of This 13th-Century French Castle
• Nobody Lives Here: Parts of France Where Nobody Lives…
• East German Village Sells at Auction for $165,000
• Picturesque Swiss Mountai…
School Boared
• Students in Finland, the World’s Best-Educated Country, React to Japan’s Harsh School Rules
• Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Mascot Finalists Unveiled
• Japanese Elementary Students Will Judge the Official 2020 Tokyo Olympics Mascot
• Watch: Wild Boars Cause Havoc at School in Japan
• Wild Boar Shot Dead after Ra…
Museums Amuse
• Using Digitized Botany Specimens, AI Excels in Simple Curatorial Tasks
• Coin-Laden Pot and Rare Pendant Among British Museum’s Record Haul
• The Brooklyn Public Library Is Now Home to a Tiny Mollusk Museum
• Are These the Worst Inventions of All Time? Inside LA’s New Museum of Failur…
Strange Breadfellows
• Measuring the Effects of Partisanship on Pie-Eating
• Finland Bakery Sells Dried Cricket Bread, Insect-Based Food Has Protein Than Wheat Load
• Finland Baker Launches Bread Made from Crushed Crickets
• The Hidden History of Scandinavia’s Love of Cardamom
• Survey Finds That Osaka People Don’t Eat Takoyaki Octopus Balls as Much…
Art Bits
• Why the Lion Is Art’s Most Powerful Symbol
• Hustle Is as Important as Technique to Cash in on Africa’s Art Boom
• Yasunari Kawabata’s Surrealist Window on the World
• Social Media Accounts You Should Follow If You’re a Fan of Freaky Found Art
• While Men Are Failing, ‘Hidden’ Works by Women Are Being Re…
Shore Things
• Evolution Row Ends as Scientists Declare Sponges to Be Sister of All Other Animals
• Stunning Footage of Coral Spawning in the Aquarium at the Australian National Sea Simulator
• Fascinating Oyster Facts
• ‘Not Ashamed’: Dolphin Hunters of Taiji Break Silence over Film the Cove
• A Tidy Little Octopus Tos…
Robot Roundup 2
• Obedient, Cheerful Robots Are Making Us Terrible at Relationships
• Ban on Killer Robots Urgently Needed, Say Scientists
• SpotMini: The Headless Robotic Dog Sure to Give You Nightmares
• Boston Dynamics Gives SpotMini Robot a Sleek Restyling
• Boston Dynamics Is Still Making Creepy Robots Under SoftBank
• Resist the Urge to Pet Boston…
Lost & Found Art
• Rare Photograph of Billy the Kid Found at a Flea Market
• ‘Lost’ Masterpiece by Spanish Artist Found Hanging in Welsh Castle
• This Man Was Living on $200 a Month When He Sold a ‘Worthless’ Blanket for $1.5 Million
• Stolen Painting Worth Estimated $165M Found Behind Bedroom Doo…
Around Japan 1
• Tokyo Is Now Home to a Karaoke-Themed Ferris Wheel
• Japanese Woman Punches Boyfriend, Charms Internet Following His Terrible Restaurant Manners
• Tour of a Japanese Convenience Store
• Japanese Companies Poke Fun at Their Own Products in Hilariously Self-Deprecating Advertisement…
Country Diary 2
• Country Diary: Stalking Red Deer on the Fringes of the City
• Country Diary 1917: Fungi Flourishes amid Autumn Decay
• Country Diary: Henry III’s Charter Helped This Tree Survive to a Ripe Old Age
• Country Diary: The Autumn Run Is a Bruising Experience for the Fish
Artificial Ingredients
• The Amazing Ways Coca Cola Uses Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to Drive Success
• Orchestra Conductors Watch Out – Here’s a Robot Who Can Do the Job
• Robot Conductor Leads Beautiful Live Orchestra Performance
• Japanese Robot Dog Sniffs Your Feet and Faints If They’re Smell…
Prototype Tablet App
• Trigonometry Discovered on a 3700-Year-Old Ancient Babylonian Tablet
• This Mysterious Ancient Tablet Could Teach Us a Thing or Two about Math
• Archeologists Decipher Ancient Babylonian Trigonometry Tablet
• Mathematical Secrets of Ancient Tablet Unlocked after Nearly a Century of Study
• Ancient Babylonian Tablet Ma…
Science Show 1
• Watch Sand Magically Flow Like a Liquid When Pumped Full of Air
• Watch a Super Cooled Nickel Ball Freeze a Bowl of Mercury
• Pouring Molten Salt into Melons
• Fascinating Experiments That Show What Happens When Mercury and Aluminum Are Combined
• See the Magical Way Balloons Are Made
• Argument Finally Settled Ove…
Bug Woes After Harvey
• Why They’re Rescuing Bats in Houston
• Harvey Is a 1,000-Year Flood Event Unprecedented in Scale
• Yes, That’s a Huge Floating Mass of Live Fire Ants in Texas
• J.J. Watt’s Flood Relief Fund Tops $8.5 Million after Boost from Walmart and Ellen DeGeneres
• How These Insects Bite 700 Times Faster Than You Can Blin…
Born Furry
• This Man Is Like the Jane Goodall of Bears
• Meet the Jane Goodall of Bears
• Jane, a Biographical Film about the Remarkable Jane Goodall Inspired by Lost Footage of Her Work
• Documentary Shows Jane Goodall in New Light with Unseen Footage
• Dr. Jane Goodall Is Now Teaching an Online Course On…
Country Diary 1
• Country Diary: The House Martins Have Taken Their Song and Departed
• Country Diary 1917: Ducks Float Like Toy Birds in the Early Haze
• Country Diary: Dark Trees Guard Even Darker Mysteries
• Country Diary: Solitary Wasp’s Embrace Means the End of the Road
DNA and Durian
• Cancer Scientists Sniff Out the Genes Behind Durian’s Famous Stink
• We Finally Know How Durian Got So Stinky
• This Could Be How Durians Get Their Stinky Smell
• Why Does the Durian Stink? Scientists Unravel Smelly Fruit’s DNA
• What Does DNA Taste Like? An Investigation
Unanticipated Arrivals
• Tons of Living Animals Have Floated from Japan to Oregon on Plastic Junk
• Coastal Creatures Are Crossing Oceans Floating on Makeshift Rafts of Plastic Debris, Warn Scientists
• Sea Critters Hitchhiked Across the Pacific on Tsunami Debris
• Debris from 2011 Tsunami Carried Invasive Species to North Americ…
Join the Marine?
• Fancy a Career Change? Why Not Become a Professional Mermaid?
• Oceanographer’s Ashes Going to Sea Aboard Rescued Sea Turtle
• Rescued Sea Turtle Will Carry Out British Oceanographer’s Ashes to the Deep in Fitting Tribute
• Whistling While They Work: Cooperative Laguna Dolphin…
Watch Those Big Brown Eyes
• Gesundheit! African Wild Dogs ‘Vote’ with Sneezes
• Are Dogs the Only Animals That Show When They’re Happy?
• Those ‘Puppy Eyes’ Are All for You
• Dogs Attempt to Communicate with Us Through Facial Expressions
• Dogs Have Pet Facial Expressions to Use on Humans, Study Find…
Country Diary 3
• Country Diary 1917: Bungled Wasps’ Nest Theft Leads to Discovery
• Country Diary: Sycamores Create Painterly Clumps of Colour and Shade
• Country Diary: The Air Is Heavy with the Scent of Apples
• Country Diary: Up to the Gills in Toadstool Spores
Da Vinci Still Stirs
• Which of These Three Artworks Should Go on View at the National Portrait Gallery?
• Palettes of the Masters: Gauguin
• All the Da Vincis in the World: Rated
• People Are Obsessed with Watching an Art Dealer Remove Varnish from a 200-Year-Old Painting
• Why Did Leonardo Da Vinci…
History’s Mysteries
• 10 Historical Events with Hilarious Forgotten Details
• Girl’s Message in a Bottle Finally Answered after 29 Years
• This Nuclear Fallout Shelter Was Untouched for 55 Years. It Might Come in Handy Now
• Long-Forgotten Rodin Sculpture Discovered in New Jersey Town Hall
• The Buried Secrets of the World’s Very First Lighthous…
Old Dogu, New Tricks
• Swedish-To-English IKEA Product Name Dictionary
• A Cut Above the Rest: How Finland’s Orange-Handled Scissors Inspired a Design Revolution
• MIT Sophomore Designs Winter Sleeping Bags for Syrian Refugees
• Adventure Tape: Super Useful, Reusable Alternative to Duct Tape, Bungie Cords and Rop…
Licorice Sticking Point
• The FDA Just Flat-Out Called This Halloween Candy Dangerous
• The FDA Has a Warning for People Who Love Black Licorice
• Licorice Lovers Beware: FDA Warns Eating Too Much May Have Dangerous Side Effects
• Black Licorice Is Bad for Your Heart, FDA Warns
• Why Do So Many of Us Hate Black Licorice…
Clearing up Fall Food
• Sweet Potato or Yam?
• Pumpkins Versus Gourds
• Elephants Vs. Giant Pumpkins
• The Elephants of the Oregon Zoo Gleefully Squish Some Giant Pumpkins to Celebrate the Fall Season
• How Do You Breed a 2,624 Pound Pumpkin?
• Pumpkins Evolved from a Literal Genetic (Monster) Mash-Up
• The Great Pumpkin-Pie Consp…
Country Diary 4
• Top 10 Books about Pastoral Life
• Country Diary: In the Slow Lane of an Old Roman Road
• Country Diary 1917: Passing Companionship in the Wood
• Country Diary: One Spider to Make a Song and Dance About
• Country Diary 1967: Summit Cairn Vandals
• Country Diary: Insects Still Find Sanctuary in the P…
Driver Ed, Then & Now
• Self-Driving Vehicles Could Make Jaywalking Legal
• Researchers Go After the Biggest Problem with Self-Driving Cars
• The Latest Fake Town Built for Self-Driving Cars Has Opened in South Korea
• A Glimpse Inside the Secret Site Where Driverless Cars Undergo 20,000 Tests
• Millions of Professional …
Power to Go
• Ingenious New Sewage Treatment System Generates Electricity and Clean Water
• Waste Toilet Paper Could Produce Lots of Electricity
• World’s Largest Laser Could Solve Our Energy Problems
• Can a Carbon ‘Vacuum Cleaner’ Save the Planet?
• DeepMind Wants to Find the Next Miracle material — Experts Just Don’t Know H…
People Talk
• 30 Unusual Christmas Presents for Him and for Her
• Gratitude and Hammocks: Oprah’s Out with Her Favorite Things
• Dance Legend Twyla Tharp on Truculent Men, Selling Hot Dogs and Her Idol Agatha Christie
• Chrissy Teigen Shares Her Thoughts on Motherhood and U.S. Presidents While Answering 73 Question…
New New Zealand Laws
• New Zealand Considers Creating Climate Change Refugee Visas
• A Proposal in New Zealand Could Trigger the Era of ‘Climate Change Refugees’
• New Zealand Is Banning Foreigners from Buying Houses
• New Zealand Compared to Italy
• The Secrets of Zealandia: The Lost Continent of the South
Lost Their Bearings, Or Missing Some
• Sailors Who Braved Months Lost at Sea Finally Reached Land. But Parts of Their Story Are Facing Doubt
• Women Rescued at Sea ‘Had Unused Emergency Beacon’ — US Coast Guard
• Questions Arise in the Story of Two Women Lost at Sea for 5 Months
• Drunk Florida Woman Riding a Horse Charged with a DU…
Let It Go
• After the NYC Marathon, Where Does All the Poop Go?
• A Portable Kit Relies on Everyday Items to Bring Toilets to Disaster Zones
• Is It Dangerous to Hold Your Urine?
• There’s No Toilet Like Home
Big Bucks
• Countries with Walmart Vs. Countries with McDonald’s
• The World’s Largest Starbucks Just Opened in Shanghai, and We Have One Word: Wow
• World’s Largest, Most Lavish Starbucks Opens in Shanghai
• The World’s Largest Starbucks Is 30,000 Square Feet and Just Opened in China
• These 5 Giant Companies Control the World’s Bee…