Science & tech
The real invisibility cloak only fools one kind of camera
Engineers have built a solid block that steers heat around whatever is inside it. It is impressive, and nothing like the cloak you're picturing.
Odd facts, properly checked. Useful finds, honestly explained.
The odd things the world keeps turning up, explained properly: the numbers, the caveats, the sources and what nobody knows yet. When a topic sends us down a rabbit hole, we also list the books and bits of kit we came across on the way.
Start here · Mind
You wake up, you can't move, and someone is in the room
Sleep paralysis is common, frightening and harmless. It happens when your mind wakes up before your body gets the message.
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Body
The bat bite you never feel is the dangerous one
An 11-year-old woke up with a bat on his face, found no mark and felt fine for three weeks. By the time symptoms appeared, rabies could no longer be stopped.
Body
Yes, carrots can turn you orange. Here's how many it takes
It has a medical name, it's harmless, and it works in much the same way as a flamingo's colour. You would need to eat around ten carrots a day for weeks.
Nature
City birds flee from women sooner than men, and nobody knows why
Across five European countries, birds took off about a metre earlier when a woman approached. The researchers matched height and clothing, and still have no explanation.
Nature
Why planes are dropping millions of flies over Texas on purpose
A parasite whose maggots eat living flesh is back in the US. The best weapon against it depends on one odd fact about how the female mates.
Science & tech
This lava planet appears to wear sunscreen
A rocky world this close to its star should have lost its air long ago. It seems to have kept it, and the best explanation so far is a layer of clouds made from vaporised rock.
Mind
Contagious yawning: what the science has and hasn't worked out
Two out of three people caught a yawn in one large study. The popular explanation turned out not to hold up, and a good replacement is still missing.
Nature
The mushroom that makes people see tiny elves
Sold as food in Chinese markets, this wild mushroom can cause detailed visions of tiny people if eaten undercooked. Scientists still can't identify the chemical responsible.
Nature
2.8 million eels, one tiny underwater mountain, and no explanation
Every year, deep-sea eels pile onto a single small seamount off Tasmania to spawn. There are more than a hundred others nearby, and nobody knows why they chose this one.
Body
Why drinking seawater makes you thirstier
One glass holds nearly double the salt you should eat in a day, and your kidneys have to spend more water getting rid of it than the glass gave you.
Nature
Jumping spiders twitch in their sleep, and catch up after a bad night
A new study found a phase of spider sleep that looks a lot like our REM. Disturb a spider all night and it makes up for it the night after. Whether it dreams is another matter.
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