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The Grisly Secret of Mummy Brown Paint
In the 18th century, artists painted masterpieces using actual human remains. This pigment was literally manufactured by grinding up Egyptian mummies mixed with
Pagers Turned Into Weapons of War
In a modern act of sabotage, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded simultaneously across Lebanon. These everyday communication devices were secretly r
The Man Who Saved The World
In 1983, a Soviet officer prevented nuclear war by ignoring a computer warning that claimed the U.S. had launched five missiles. He correctly gambled that the a
Matter Behaves Like A Ghostly Wave
In the quantum world, solid objects like electrons act like waves that pass through two doors at once. They only snap into the form of a single particle the mom
Actions That Can Change The Past
In this quantum experiment, observing a particle can seemingly reach back in time to decide whether it traveled as a wave or a solid object. Deciding how to mea
The Fungus That Controls Insect Minds
The zombie-ant fungus hijacks an insect's nervous system to turn it into a puppet. By forcing the ant to climb to a precise height, the fungus ensures the perfe
The Trial of a Dead Pope
In 897, a deceased Pope was exhumed and placed on trial for alleged crimes. Propped up in a chair, the rotting corpse faced a full courtroom while a deacon answ
The Most Chaotic Marathon in History
The 1904 Olympic marathon was a bizarre spectacle involving rat poison, stray dogs, and a competitor who napped mid-race. It remains the strangest endurance eve
The Military Conflict Australia Lost to Birds
In 1932, the Australian military launched a formal campaign using machine guns to cull a massive emu population. Despite their superior firepower, the soldiers
The Jellyfish That Never Dies
The immortal jellyfish possesses the uncanny ability to reverse its life cycle. Instead of dying, it reverts from a mature adult back into a juvenile polyp, eff
Living Inside A Hidden Simulation
You might be living in a computer program right now. Some scientists and philosophers argue that if civilizations ever gain the power to simulate reality, they
The Public Execution of an Elephant
In 1916, a five-ton circus elephant named Mary was publicly hanged. She was sentenced to death by a town after killing a handler who had poked her with a hook.