A smoke alarm is a white plastic disc with a button and a battery, and the assumption is that something inside it can somehow see smoke. Neither of the two…
A few metres can be worth a couple of degrees and three weeks. Here are fourteen.
1. A Wall Facing the Sun Is a Storage Heater
Masonry absorbs heat through…
The Metaphor Is the Wrong Way Round
Almost everybody carries the same mental picture of what a kidney does. Blood arrives dirty, passes through something like a coffee filter, and…
The Reflex That Will Not Take Instructions
A sneeze is one of a very small number of things the body does that a person can feel approaching, can do absolutely…
It Is the Remains of a Pipe, Not a Wound
The usual assumption is that a belly button is where a cord was cut and the resulting cut healed over.…
Busier at two in the morning than at two in the afternoon. Here are fifteen.
1. Foxes Are Not Hunting Your Bins by Accident
Urban foxes hold territories they know…