Every lake island is either something that was already there, something that grew, or something somebody built. Which one it is determines everything about the place. Here are fifteen.
1.…
Almost everything strange about smell follows from two facts: it is chemistry rather than physics, and it takes an unusually direct route into the brain. Here are twelve consequences.
1.…
The underlying operation is always the same: bacteria convert milk sugars into acid, the acid changes the proteins and the product keeps. What differs is which bacteria, at what temperature,…
There is a category of biological feature that only makes sense as a leftover, and the third molars are the most familiar example.
They appear late, typically in the late…
There is a particular kind of double-take that everyone has experienced. A washing machine looks startled. A car in a car park appears smug. A pattern in wood grain resolves,…
Sound behaves very differently in water than in air, and most of the differences are counterintuitive.
It travels roughly four to five times faster. It carries very much further. And,…