The Mercy Dogs of World War 1

Mar 26, 2021

Dogs have accompanied men to war since ancient times, as scouts, sentries, trackers and messengers. But the most unique role they ever playe...

DC-X: The Rocket That Beat SpaceX by 20 Years

Mar 23, 2021

Twenty years before modern spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin began designing rockets that launch and land vertically, the DC...

Maliwawa Figures: A Rock Art Style Like No Other

Mar 19, 2021

Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, has a remarkable range and number of rock art sites, rivalling that of Europe, southern Africa and ...

The Disease That Turns Muscles Into Bones

Mar 18, 2021

Behind a glass enclosure at the Mutter Museum of The College of Physicians in Philadelphia is a terrifying exhibit—two human skeletons. Thei...

Guarapari’s Radioactive Beaches

Mar 17, 2021

About 50 km south of Vitória, the state capital of Espírito Santo, in southeastern Brazil, lies the coastal town of Guarapari, a popular tou...

Heroic War Pigeons

Mar 16, 2021

World War One, and to some extent, the Second World War, was a strange blend of archaic and modern technology. The First World War, in parti...

When California Was Thought To Be An Island

Mar 15, 2021

If California were a country its economy would be the fifth largest in the world. Yet the tech boom is not the starkest way California has e...

How a Failed Dam Legalized Marrying The Dead

Mar 12, 2021

Sitting low among the hills, just north of the city of Frejus, in southern France, not far from the French Riviera coast, are the broken rem...

The Octagon Houses of Orson Fowler

Mar 10, 2021

Orson Fowler wanted to design the best house, but he detested the traditional boxy shapes. Too many right angles, he thought. In his mind, t...

Conrad Haas: The 16th Century Rocket Pioneer

Mar 9, 2021

In 1961, a professor at the University of Bucharest, made a surprising discovery in the archives of the city of Sibiu, in Romania. It was a ...