The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

May 6, 2020

When cotton first came to Europe from Central Asia during the Middle ages, people were fascinated by the fluffy, fibrous balls that resemb...

Black Weddings: Marrying in The Time of Cholera

May 5, 2020

Last month, a peculiar wedding ceremony took place at a cemetery in Bnei Brak, a city in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. With government re...

Cosmos 954: The Nuke That Fell From Space

May 1, 2020

What goes up must eventually come down, including satellites that are currently orbiting the earth. After their work is done, they will be...

The Allure of Gigantic Excavators

Apr 29, 2020

A young girl stands inside the enormous bucket of “Big Muskie”, the world’s largest dragline excavator. Photo: Charles Barilleaux/Flickr  ...

The Mysterious Hum Nobody Can Explain

Apr 28, 2020

For the past nine years, residents of Windsor city, situated on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border just across Detroit river, have ...

The Turkish Hotel Built Above an Ancient Ruin

Apr 25, 2020

In 2009, a construction crew digging the foundation for a new hotel in Antakya, Turkey, made an astonishing discovery. They uncovered a va...

The Artist Who Got Carried Away: The Story of The Peacock Room

Apr 25, 2020

In 1876, the British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland bought himself a grand house at 49 Princes Gate in the fashionable neighb...

Ama: The Freediving Fisherwomen of Japan

Apr 23, 2020

In ancient times, the only way to gather food and other resources, such as sponge and pearl, from the sea bed was to hold one’s breath and d...

The Shortest Rivers in The World

Apr 21, 2020

Most people imagine rivers to be long meandering waterways flowing down faraway mountains, through the valleys and the plains until it reach...

The Elevator Shaft That Came Before The Elevator

Apr 20, 2020

The Cooper Union's Foundation Building in Lower Manhattan was completed in 1859. This large six-story brownstone building of Anglo-Itali...