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Why do you never see a baby housefly?

20 Mar 2017

Because baby houseflies don’t exist. A little backgrounder on the flies’ reproductive cycle can clear up this seeming conundrum. Within a week of mating, a doggie-style activity lasting from a few...

The Strange Friendship Between Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

20 Mar 2017

Doyle had become interested in spiritualism in the late 1800s and joined the British Society for Psychical Research (SPR). In 1894 he was one of the members of a committee sent to investigate a...

What are smelling salts?

20 Mar 2017

Victorian ladies fainted with alarming frequency. They had been characterized as the weaker sex and had become conditioned to fulfil the role. A little shock, such as a glance at a passage in Lady...

The Curious “Science” of Oscillococcinum

20 Mar 2017

Take the carcass of a duck and place 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart in a one liter bottle filled with a solution of pancreatic juice and glucose. When after forty days the liver...

What is liquid smoke?

20 Mar 2017

Subjecting various foods to smoke is an age-old method used both for preservation and flavouring. But there are issues. Smoke contains a variety of cancer causing compounds. And in this case, we...

Hype, Hope and Ginseng

20 Mar 2017

Probably what first attracted the Chinese to the odd looking root was its shape. It had a decidedly human appearance and was therefore given the name "ginseng," meaning "man- like." The uncanny...

The Mystery of Maya Blue Finally Solved

20 Mar 2017

Maya Blue, a vibrant light blue colour, characterizes the civilisation that flourished across Mesoamerica between the 3rd and 10th century. The pigment was used to decorate pottery, murals and...

How was “SpaceShipOne” powered?

20 Mar 2017

Who would have ever thought that rubber tires and laughing gas would be instrumental in getting a privately funded craft into space to claim a prize of ten million dollars? Yet, that is just what...

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