Luna 9: The First Soft Landing on Another Planetary Body

Jun 2, 2022

The first spacecraft to achieve a survivable soft-landing on the moon was the Soviet unmanned spacecraft Luna 9. It was an exceedingly diffi...

Auguste Piccard: The Man Who Flew To The Stratosphere

Jun 1, 2022

Auguste Antoine Piccard was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer, who became the inspiration behind one of Tintin’s most lovable charact...

Mary Ann Bevan: The Ugliest Woman in History

May 31, 2022

Mary Ann Bevan may have made a name as the ugliest woman in the world. But in her endeavours she also became an epitome of opportunism and o...

The Leaning Kiipsaare Lighthouse

May 30, 2022

In the sea, off the coast of Saaremaa, Estonia, stands a slender lighthouse leaning dramatically towards the sea. When it was built in 1933 ...

The Churches of Antarctica

May 30, 2022

In an article in Vice , Brian Merchant argues that the first structure that humans will probably build on Moon after they have completed bui...

The Longest Place Name in Europe

May 27, 2022

On the island of Anglesey off the north-west coast of Wales, just across Menai Strait, lies a small village with a big name: Llanfair­pwllgw...

The Shortest War in History Lasted Less Than An Hour

May 26, 2022

How do you define a war? Should both sides have a fair chance of winning? Is a coup within a protectorate justified as war? Does the conflic...

Shapira Scrolls: Forgery or Genuine?

May 26, 2022

In 1883, a Jerusalem antiquities dealer named Moses Wilhelm Shapira announced the discovery of a remarkable artifact—15 fragments of ancient...

How Sin Eaters Saved The Dead & The Dying

May 25, 2022

In 18th and 19th century England and Scotland, sin eating was a profession. Beggars, destitute and those in want of a measly morsel of nutri...

The Strange Petroglyphs of Dighton Rock

May 25, 2022

On the shores of Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts, stands a small museum with a single but massive exhibit—a 40-ton rock that was fis...