Macquarie Island’s Ecological Upheaval
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 26, 2025
Macquarie Island, a windswept outpost in the south-western Pacific Ocean between Tasmania and Antarctica, is a place of staggering natural w...
Why People Keep Throwing Sticks at The Stikhokken
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 25, 2025
In the woods near the city of Nykøbing Falster in southern Denmark lies a big pile of broken branches. At first glance, it looks like nothin...
Cape Grim Air Archive
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 21, 2025
On the windswept tip of north-western Tasmania, at a place long known to the Palawa people as Kennaook, sits one of the world’s most importa...
N1: The Rocket That Failed To Put Soviets On The Moon
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 20, 2025
On May 25, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy stood before a special joint session of Congress and announced the ambitious goal to land an...
The Stegosaurus of Ta Prohm
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 18, 2025
Hidden among the sprawling roots and ruins of Ta Prohm , one of Angkor’s most atmospheric temples, lies a carving that has sparked fascinati...
Nowe Ateny: Poland’s Eccentric First Encyclopedia
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 14, 2025
In 1745, a Polish parish priest named Benedykt Joachim Chmielowski published Nowe Ateny (New Athens), the first encyclopedia ever written...
The Invincible Bramah Lock
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 12, 2025
It is 1790, and you find yourself at 124 Piccadilly, London. As you stroll past the rows of shops, one window in particular catches your eye...
Project Diana: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 8, 2025
Around noon on January 10, 1946, a powerful pulse of radio waves shot skyward from a massive radar installation at Camp Evans in Wall Townsh...
The Phantom of Heilbronn: How Contaminated DNA Sent The German Police On A Wild Goose Chase
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 6, 2025
On the afternoon of April 25, 2007, Michele Kiesewetter , a 22-year-old police officer in the German city of Heilbronn, was shot dead in a p...
The Knife Makers of Thiers
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 31, 2025
In the Puy-de-Dôme department of Auvergne, in the heart of France, lies Thiers—a city renowned throughout the country as the historic capita...
Hua Tuo And The Mysterious Mafeisan
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 30, 2025
During the late Eastern Han dynasty, a brilliant Chinese physician named Hua Tuo —renowned for his pioneering medical techniques, surgical s...
St. Elizabeth's Flood of 1421
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 21, 2025
On the night of November 18–19, 1421, a powerful storm surge from the North Sea broke through poorly maintained dikes in the County of Holla...
Opiki Toll Bridge
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 16, 2025
The Opiki Toll Bridge is an abandoned bridge in Opiki, located in the Horowhenua district of New Zealand's North Island. Spanning the Ma...
Henry Gunther: The Last Soldier To Be Killed During World War 1
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 15, 2025
Just after 5 o’clock on the morning of 11 November 1918, British, French, and German officials gathered in a railway carriage in the Compièg...
IctÃneo II: The World’s First Powered Submarine That Ran On Chemicals
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 9, 2025
Before the age of steam, all early submarines relied on human muscle for propulsion. The first functional submarine, built by Dutch inventor...
Pecunia Non Olet: The Urine Tax of Ancient Rome
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 7, 2025
A Roman-era latrine in Timgad in Algeria . Credit: Wikimedia Commons Throughout history, governments have found creative ways to raise...
Abraham Crijnssen: The Ship That Disguised Itself As An Island
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 3, 2025
Camouflage is a vital strategy in warfare—whether on land, at sea, or in the air. During the First and Second World Wars, many Allied ships—...
Robert Coates: The Greatest Bad Actor
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 30, 2025
In the glittering world of 19th-century theatre, where talent was prized and ridicule could end a career, one man defied convention and beca...
The Iron Hand of Götz von Berlichingen
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 25, 2025
Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen was no ordinary knight. A formidable figure in 16th-century Germany, he earned both fame and in...
The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 16, 2025
In the late 19th century, a rare and highly unusual neuropsychiatric condition was observed among a group of French-Canadian lumberjacks li...
