The Shrimp That Sees Too Much and Hits Like a Sledge
A tiny crustacean with a private physics lab in its fist, an eye that lectures your camera and the temper of a disgruntled civil servant.Read More 
When Languages Refuse Your Nouns And Verbs
Some tongues simply refuse to file words into 'nouns' or 'verbs' and English grammar tutors are having panic attacks in orderly queues.Read More 
The Sanzhi UFO Pods: When Architecture Took a Wrong Turn at Sci Fi
A seaside Taiwanese resort of saucer-shaped holiday pods was built, abandoned, and finally bulldozed - and the paperwork was the most ghostly thing of all.Read More 
The Five-Second Rule Is Utter Rubbish
They tell you a split-second rescue mission saves biscuits; laboratory petri dishes, busy bacteria and my mother's tutting insist otherwise.Read More 
They Wore Electricity Like Jewellery
Victorians looped little galvanic chains around their limbs and declared a polite tingle to be medical progress.Read More 
The Hagfish That Smothers Enemies With Slime And Knots
A jawless, eel-shaped recluse defends itself by pumping enormous quantities of slime into a predator's gills and then ties itself into knots like a prim, indignant mariner.Read More 
The Moon's Dust Does a Tiny Rebellion
The Moon has a fine, charged dust that actually lifts itself at sunrise and sunset, forming a ghostly horizon glow and tiny 'fountains'-and it behaves like a petty, aristocratic civil servant.Read More 
Do Not Beat Your Carpet in London
An 1839 Metropolitan law politely but firmly forbids beating rugs in the street, because Victorian civilisation could not abide a dust cloud.Read More 
The Pigeons Who Nearly Drove Our Missiles
A famed behaviourist trained pigeons to steer weapons by pecking at a projected target and the Navy eventually chose circuits over clucks.Read More 
Truffle Oil: The Aristocrat of Fake Smells
We pay a small fortune for an imitation perfume that smells like the idea of a truffle, not the real thing, and we applaud ourselves for being discerning.Read More 