Esther Inglis-Arkell

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Five Wonderful Moments From Last Night’s Arrow

“Canaries” was an odd episode. Characters did a lot of zig-zagging, sometimes emotionally, sometimes geographically. But within the chaos, here are five perfect moments for us to savor. Thea Queen: Superbrat If there’s ever an episode of Arrow in which Thea Queen doesn’t stomp around and glare at people I don’t want to watch it. … Continued

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How The BBC Fooled Viewers Into Thinking Spaghetti Grows On Trees

Who knew the BBC had this much of a sense of humor? Here is a fantastic clip broadcast on April Fool’s Day in 1957, which shows the “traditional spaghetti harvest” and educates its viewers on dangers like the spaghetti weevil. I am a relatively credulous person. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve believed … Continued

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Why The Rare Substance These Frogs Produce Is Named After The Smurfs

Ranasmurfin often decorates trees in Malaysia. This pigment is rare, one of the few proteins in nature to be blue instead of orange, red, or yellow. Why do you see it in trees? And how is it made? The Malaysian tree frog, Polypedates leucomystax, has a rather involved mating ritual. A male and a female … Continued

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Watch A Fruit Fly’s Heart Beat

These oddly fascinating videos show a fruit fly’s heart beating. While a fruit fly’s heart doesn’t look anything like our own, it might just tell us a little bit about why our hearts fail. A big, muscular heart is not as healthy as it sounds. Enlarged hearts, which have overly thick and muscular walls, decreases … Continued

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The Red Barn Murder Inspired A Century of Art

Maria Marten died in 1827. Since then, she has inspired countless works of art. Her murder has been celebrated in song and film, commemorated in paintings and ceramics. Here’s how the Red Barn Murder became an entire genre of art by itself. The Murder Maria Marten was a mole-catcher’s daughter. William Corder was a prosperous … Continued

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The Ocean Has a “Channel” That Lets Sound Travel for Hundreds of Miles

The appropriately-named SOFAR channel is a level of the ocean that allows whale calls to travel hundreds of miles, and lets a recording station in California record an underwater earthquake in Hawaii. This is how it works. Sound is a wave, and it can bend like a wave. To understand how, imagine speeding down an … Continued

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The Effects Of Japan’s 1955 Poison-Milk Coverup Persist To This Day

In 1955, Japanese babies began getting sick. It took a long time — inexcusably long — for the danger to be publicly announced, and as a result, Japan had over ten thousand victims of arsenic poisoning, and over 100 deaths. The Morinaga Milk Babies In late July of 1955, parents in western Japan began taking … Continued

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​The Legend Of The Surgery With The 300% Mortality Rate

Robert Liston was a competent surgeon who contributed significantly to medicine as a science. Then he had the misfortune to have one seriously bad day, and became a legend in the medical community. A Scottish surgeon who practiced all over Britain, he earned respect for his skill in amputations. Liston practiced in the early 1800s, … Continued

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Red Dawn Was An Accidental Remake—In More Ways Than One

A bellicose enemy attacks a complacent country and institutes martial law until a ragtag group of unbroken patriots rally and re-take their country. It sounds like Red Dawn, but actually it’s The Invasion of 1910. And due to some editing, it was widely popular in the country of both the rebels and the invaders. Red … Continued

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Dairy Creamer, Water, And A Turntable Make Something Mesmerizing

Here we see scientists at the UCLA Spinlab having a good time and sharing it with the world. The experiment is as simple as throwing creamer into a tank of water on a turntable. The results are fun to watch and teach us about gyroscopic forces. Did you know that when half-and-half hits water it … Continued

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The 10 Biggest Blunders in The History Of Espionage

In movies and books, spies are always debonair and brilliant, pulling off the most complex schemes without getting caught (too badly.) But in real life, espionage is a messy, complicated business, and sometimes people screw up. Here are the 10 most jaw-dropping screwups in the history of real-life spies. 10. The Chief of Counter-Intelligence Had … Continued

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​Terraforming Gone Wrong Resulted in a Plague of Rabbits

When the “frontier” was first being settled, prairie rabbits were a boon. They were easy game for hungry families. But during the Depression, they became a terror that whole communities fought through gruesome “Jack Rabbit Drives.” During the First World War, the price of wheat went through the roof, and one of the best places … Continued

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10 Catch Phrases You Swore You’d Never Use (And When You Used Them)

Science fiction and fantasy are full of great quotable phrases — but some are damn near irresistible. No matter how hard you struggle, these phrases worm their way into your consciousness. No matter how much you deny it, you let them back out. Here’s a list of 10 phrases too good not to repeat. 10. … Continued

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This Scientific Paper Proves That Nature Never Stops Weirding Us Out

Every now and again, when reading about nature, you come across a fact that you would never, ever believe if you were to read it in fiction. A science fiction novel that featured a creature which used its eyes to eat – literally to push food down its throat – would be ridiculous. But that’s … Continued

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What Causes Rigor Mortis?

When you’re dead, you stiffen up. We all know this. But why? What is the process that goes on, inside a dead body, that causes muscle tissue to contract so tightly that the limbs can be impossible to move? We’ll take you into the wonderful world of rigor mortis. We think of the contraction of … Continued

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​Learn “What Every Girl Should Know” From Margaret Sanger

Among the many science papers preserved online is the famous (and at one time, infamous) column written by Margaret Sanger. It only ran for a short while and was banned for obscenity, but now remains one of the more interesting historical documents out there. Stanger coined the term “birth control” in 1914. Think about what … Continued

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​How Chemistry Transforms Crackers Into Apple Pie

Mock-apple pie filling is made, primarily, of crackers. There are no apples in it. Still, most people who taste it swear that they are eating real apple pie. What is the chemistry that tricks our senses? If you want to make mock apple pie, here’s what you need. • 2 cups of water • 1 … Continued

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When You Overcook Eggs, You Turn Them Into Chemical Weapons

Remember that ad campaign a while back, that was meant to show you that eggs weren’t bad for you? Turns out, they understated the case. Eggs are desperately trying to save your life. The “green” on boiled eggs shows where they saved you from your own attempts at chemical warfare. Hydrogen sulfide is a toxic … Continued

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Why Do Birds Have ZW Sex Chromosomes Instead Of XY?

Your sex characteristics were determined by X and Y chromosomes, same as most other creatures from humans to fruit flies. So why do birds and butterflies have ZW chromosomes instead? And more importantly, why does ZW produce a female bird while ZZ produces a male? The XY and ZW Systems of Sex Determination Birds, butterflies, … Continued

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Let’s Only Talk About The End Of Last Night’s Arrow

The beginning of “Midnight City” has a case of the sads. Let’s be honest; Arrow has had too many cases of the sads lately. The show itself seems sick of its gloomy tone, which is probably why by the end it goes completely crazy. Let’s talk about that. The Flashdance in the Flashback Ollie and … Continued