Pages published by Jenson Bragbury

Fresh off the Press

Surstromming: The Can That Opens Like A Crime Scene

A Swedish tin of fermented herring will make your kitchen evacuate itself and everyone's dignity follow politely behind.Read More

London Stank So Bad Parliament Nearly Fled

In the summer of 1858 the Thames produced such a magnificent river of sewage that Parliament shut its windows, people gagged in bowler hats, and Britain finally built a proper sewer system.Read More

Superfluid Helium Sneaks Out Like A Traitor

Drop helium below 2.17 kelvin and it stops behaving like a liquid and starts behaving like a quantum pickpocket, climbing walls, leaking from closed vessels and even making fountains when you warm it up.Read More

The Toad That Grows Babies On Her Back

This frog turns her skin into a nursery: eggs are pressed into her back, she grows pockets, and fully formed toadlets crawl out when they are ready.Read More

They Put an Island on the Map. It Was a Lie.

For more than a century cartographers politely agreed that Sandy Island sat in the Coral Sea - until a research ship sailed there and the ocean laughed.Read More

They Tried To Wallpaper Your House With Bubble Wrap

Two thrill-seeking inventors made a living-room look like a washing machine and learned the hard way that not all bright ideas deserve respect.Read More

The Shark That Time Forgot

Picture a fish that treats a 400th birthday like a Tuesday - Greenland sharks can live nearly four centuries and only reach proper adulthood at about 150.Read More

The North Pond Hermit Who Outsourced Society

He spent twenty-seven years in a Maine woodlot, surviving on what he nicked, a radio, and a principled disdain for small talk.Read More

They Doused Every Hearth And Made Fire With Sticks

When a village couldn't trust doctors, they snuffed every home fire, rubbed wood until it screamed and turned the ashes into anti-plague talismans.Read More

Hemispheres Don't Tell Your Toilet What To Do

The Coriolis effect runs weather, not your panicked bathroom swirl; your loo's direction is plumbing, not planetary spite.Read More
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