United Kingdom
Celebrating 1,447 Years of the Loch Ness Monster
Yesterday, 1,447 years ago, Saint Columba, a Gaelic Irish missionary monk, was poking around the Scottish highlands when he reportedly stumbled upon a creature no man had before seen: an ancient, long-surviving plesiosaurs, known today as the Loch Ness monster
August 23, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Killer Economy – Science Suspects Recession to Blame for 1,000 Suicides in England
While jobs declined in England between 2008 to 2010, researchers found that suicides increased
August 15, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Sir Bernard Lovell, The Man The Soviets Tried to Poison With Uranium, Dies at 98
Lovell, of the Lovell telescope, made several advances in radio astronomy and physics.
August 07, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
“Night At The Museum” For Adults Lets You Sleep Over With Dinosaurs
London's Natural History Museum is challenging adults to channel their inner child in an upcoming grown ups-only slumber party.
August 01, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Document Deep Dive: A Peek at the Last Time London Hosted the Olympics
Records at the National Archives in London show how organizers cobbled together the 1948 "Austerity" Games
July 31, 2012 |
By Megan Gambino
World’s First Test Tube Baby Turns 34 Today
On this day 34 years ago, Louise Brown, the first "test tube baby," was welcomed into the world.
July 25, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
The Science Behind London Olympics’ “Springy” Track
When the athletes hit the track at this summer's Olympic games, they'll be stepping onto a surface as finely tuned as they are.
July 24, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
Hitler Plotted to Kill Churchill With Exploding Chocolate
Nazis are known for their heinous wartime crimes and tactics. Now, exploding chocolate can be added to that list, as revealed by a 60-year-old letter stamped "Secret."
July 18, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
How Common Was Cannibalism?
While eating one another is understandable if stranded on a snowy mountain or desolate wasteland, evidence exists that some societies tucked into the practice even if not faced with life-or-death situations, just for the fun of it.
July 18, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
360-Year-Old Advertisement Extolls Coffee’s Virtues
An advertisement issued by some brilliant London entrepreneurs may well be the first coffee ad ever.
July 18, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
In Scotland, Two Mix-and-Match Mummies Contain Parts of Six Corpses
Two 3,000 year old bodies discovered in a Scottish bog turned out not to be two bodies at all. The ancient skeletons are stitched together from the remains of six individuals.
July 10, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
How Do Animals Perceive the World?
Scientists demonstrate how animals view the world, and why their vision influences the way they look.
July 09, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Synthetic Bacteria Could Turn Ocean Garbage into One Big Island
Entrepreneurial students from University College London are striving to create tropical paradises made from ocean garbage. The aim of the project is to collect tiny pieces of plastic trash floating in the ocean, then stick them all together to create islands of artificial habitat.
July 09, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Science Answers Age-Old Question, Should We Live to Work or Work to Live?
It’s summer time, and the temptation to skip the office and head to the pool is intoxicating. If only each and every day could be spent lazing under an umbrella rather than toiling away in pursuit of the next paycheck. But according to NatCen Social Research, a British independent social resaerch center, it’s precisely the [...]
July 03, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Wrecked Rivers of T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ Teem With Life Once More
“The river sweats / Oil and tar / The barges drift / With the turning tide,” wrote T. S. Eliot in an ode to the River Thames in The Wasteland. Indeed, oil and tar and other industrial pollutants for years plagued Britain’s rivers, from the “Great Stink” of 1858 when human waste choked London’s Thames [...]
July 03, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
300 Years of Rowing on the Thames
There must be something in the water at Eton, where rowing rules as the sport of choice
July 2012 |
By Joshua Hammer
The Little-Known History of How the Modern Olympics Got Their Start
As London gets set to host the XXXth Olympiad, acclaimed sportswriter Frank Deford connects the modern Games to their unlikely origin—in rural England
July 2012 |
By Frank Deford
An Opera for an English Olympic Hero
Lal White was forgotten by many, even residents of his small English factory town, but the whimsical Cycle Song hopes to change that
July 2012 |
By Franz Lidz
The Long and Winding History of the Thames
Float down England's longest river, from its origin in the Cotswolds to its ramble through London, a journey through centuries of "liquid history"
July 2012 |
By Joshua Hammer
That Pixellated Uniform Pattern Was So Bad, The Army Trashed $5 Billion Worth
The army spent $5 billion on those new-fangled pixelated camouflage uniforms that peppered Iraq and Afghanistan, only to find out that they do not work at all, The Daily reports: “Essentially, the Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment,” said an Army specialist who served two tours in Iraq, wearing UCP [...]
June 26, 2012 |
By Sarah Laskow
