Some Languages Make You Say How You Know Stuff
Grammar that is basically an honesty detector: in some tongues you literally must tell everyone if you saw it, heard it, guessed it, or were told it.Read More 
They Told Me It Was A Sugar Pill And I Felt Better
Honesty, it seems, does not destroy the placebo; it dresses it up in sensible trousers and sends it to do the job.Read More 
They Buried Pee And Pins To Stop Curses
In old houses folks filled bottles with urine, hair and bent pins, buried them in hearths and pretended the devil would take a number and wait.Read More 
They Stole A Giant's Bones And Put Them On Display
He begged for a burial at sea and was instead bribed, dissected, and turned into a museum oddity - the ultimate indignity.Read More 
This Slug Stole Plant Powers And I Am Living For It
There is a real-life sea slug that nicks chloroplasts from algae and survives on sunlight for months-nature's ultimate freeloading flex.Read More 
We Take Turns: The Two Nations That Pass One Tiny Island Back And Forth
An uninhabited sliver of river is literally shared custody between France and Spain and swapped like an umbrella in a drizzle.Read More 
Step On Thai Money And The Crown Notices
In Thailand the king's face on a banknote is not just decorative; disrespecting it can be a criminal offence under strict monarchy laws.Read More 
That pistol shrimp that makes tiny explosions
There is a wee shrimp that snaps its claw so fast it makes a bubble that pops like a mini gunshot and stuns fish.Read More 
When Countries Redraw Tomorrow: How Nations Move the Date Line and Make Cartographers Swear
Some governments have quite literally redrawn tomorrow, shoving the International Date Line about like a reluctant houseguest and leaving maps, calendars and long-suffering atlas printers in a state of theatrical upset.Read More 
That Barnacle That Makes Crabs Babysit Its Babies
Meet the parasitic barnacle that sneaks into a crab, turns him into a sterilized nanny and gets him to love every minute of it.Read More 