There is a contradiction at the centre of making charcoal that explains everything about how it was done.
The wood has to be heated to a high temperature, and the…
Maya Linton
There is an idea about sailing that seems obviously true and is only half the story.
The idea is that a sail is a bag that catches the wind and…
There is a small category of materials that are not assembled from anything, and felt is the oldest of them.
Almost every fabric is made of threads. Spinning turns loose…
There is a class of object that has to work with nobody supervising it, in public, permanently, and postboxes are among the clearest examples.
Before they existed, a letter had…
There is a strong temptation to explain organised-looking animal behaviour by assuming somebody is organising it.
An ant trail invites exactly that. A line of insects moving purposefully between a…
There is a common assumption about layered rocks that slate steadily breaks.
The assumption is that a rock which splits into sheets does so along the layers in which it…