Geography · The Story
The Loneliest Place on Earth
In the South Pacific there's a point so far from land that the nearest humans are often astronauts. It's also where old spacecraft go to die.
Every previous StoneRed
The Archive
45 articles, filed with more enthusiasm than order.
Search the archive
37 fascinating things… for “art”
Geography · The Story
The Loneliest Place on Earth
In the South Pacific there's a point so far from land that the nearest humans are often astronauts. It's also where old spacecraft go to die.
Science · The Story
The Deepest Hole Ever Dug
For almost twenty years, Soviet scientists drilled straight down into the Arctic. They reached 12,262 metres, found water where there should be none, and stopped — and a rumour about what they heard down there refuses to die.
Art · The Rabbit Hole
Why Medieval Knights Keep Fighting Snails
Open certain 13th- and 14th-century manuscripts and you'll find armoured knights in desperate combat with garden snails. It's one of art history's best running jokes — and it goes much deeper than snails.
Cold Cases · The Strange Case
Thirteen Empty Frames
In 1990, two men dressed as police officers walked into a Boston museum and left with a Vermeer, three Rembrandts and more. The empty frames are still hanging on the wall.
Cold Cases · The Story
The Summer the Mona Lisa Vanished
In 1911, a handyman walked out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa under his smock. Nobody noticed for a day — and the theft is a big part of why she became the most famous painting in the world.
Random · The Story
best "spots" in boston
The Orgin of the best "Spots in Boston MA"
Mysteries · The Theory
The Book Nobody Can Read
Six centuries old, written in an unknown script, illustrated with plants that don't exist. The Voynich Manuscript has defeated wartime codebreakers, linguists and computers. Here is what we actually know.
History · The Strange Case
The War That Lasted Less Than an Hour
On a summer morning in 1896, Britain and Zanzibar fought an entire war before most people had finished breakfast. Then came the bill.
Psychology · The Question
Why Don't We Remember Being Babies?
You learned to walk, talk and recognise your own face — and you remember none of it. Science is finally starting to explain where those years went.
Nature · The Story
The Jellyfish That Hits Rewind
When life gets hard, Turritopsis dohrnii doesn't die. It turns back into a baby.
Weird · The Strange Case
The Summer Strasbourg Couldn't Stop Dancing
In July 1518, a woman stepped into a street and began to dance. Within weeks, dozens — perhaps hundreds — had joined her, and nobody could make them stop.
People · The Person
The Man Who Didn't Believe the Computer
Just after midnight on 26 September 1983, a Soviet satellite system reported that American nuclear missiles were on their way. The officer on duty had minutes to decide what to tell Moscow.
Ancient World · The Deep Dive
The Concrete That Heals Itself
Modern concrete starts falling apart within decades. Roman harbour walls have been sitting in seawater for two thousand years. In 2023, scientists finally worked out one of the reasons why.
Modern World · The Strange Case
The Emus Won
In 1932, Australia sent soldiers with machine guns to fight a flock of flightless birds. It did not go to plan.
Technology · The Timeline
The Chocolate Bar That Melted in the Lab
The microwave oven was invented by a self-taught engineer who never finished grammar school, standing next to radar equipment, with a snack in his pocket.
Philosophy · The Question
If You Replace Every Plank, Is It Still the Same Ship?
A 2,000-year-old puzzle about a wooden boat turns out to be a question about your body, your memories, and whether you are the same person who woke up this morning.
History · The Strange Case
The Day Boston Drowned in Molasses
On a mild January afternoon in 1919, a giant tank burst and sent a wave of syrup through the streets of Boston's North End. It sounds like a cartoon. It killed 21 people.
Psychology · The Person
The Man With a Hole in His Head
In 1848, an iron rod more than a metre long shot through Phineas Gage's skull. He sat up, talked, and lived for another eleven years — and became the most famous patient in the history of neuroscience.
Science · The Story
The Year Without a Summer
In 1816, snow fell in New England in June, harvests failed across Europe, and a group of bored writers stuck indoors invented Frankenstein. The cause was a volcano on the other side of the world.
Space · The Theory
The Explosion That Flattened a Forest
In 1908, something exploded above a remote Siberian forest with the force of a large nuclear weapon. It flattened about 80 million trees. No crater was ever found.
Geography · The Strange Case
The Lake That Exploded
One night in 1986, a peaceful crater lake in Cameroon released an invisible cloud that rolled down into the valleys and killed 1,746 people in their sleep.
Space · The Theory
Where Is Everybody?
Over lunch in 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked a simple question about aliens. Seventy-five years later, it's still one of the most unsettling questions in science.
Nature · The Story
The Banana Your Grandparents Ate
The banana in your kitchen isn't the one people ate in 1940. That one was wiped out by a fungus — and the replacement is under threat too.
Economics · The Theory
When a Tulip Cost as Much as a House
Tulip mania is the most famous financial bubble in history — a tale of Dutch merchants ruined by flower bulbs. The real story is stranger, smaller, and much more interesting.
Space · The Story
The Day the Sun Set Telegraphs on Fire
In 1859, the biggest solar storm on record lit up skies with auroras as far south as the Caribbean and made telegraph wires spark. If it happened today, it would be a very different story.
Nature · The Rabbit Hole
The Alien in the Aquarium
Octopuses have three hearts, blue blood and most of their neurons in their arms. They solve puzzles, recognise faces and escape from tanks. They might be the closest thing to an alien intelligence on Earth.
Nature · The Story
What Happens When a Whale Dies
When a whale sinks to the deep sea floor, its body becomes an oasis that can feed a whole community of strange creatures for decades — including worms that eat bone.
Mysteries · The Theory
The Colony That Vanished
In 1590, John White returned to the English settlement on Roanoke Island to find everyone gone. The only clue was a single word carved into a post — "CROATOAN".
Music · The Story
The Mixtape We Sent to the Stars
In 1977, NASA bolted a gold-plated record to each Voyager spacecraft — music, greetings and sounds of Earth, for anyone who might find it. Chuck Berry made the cut. So did a kiss.
Music · The Theory
Can Anyone Actually Hear a Stradivarius?
Stradivarius violins sell for millions. But when world-class violinists played them blindfolded alongside modern instruments, most couldn't tell them apart — and many preferred the new ones.
Cold Cases · The Strange Case
The Hijacker Who Jumped Into the Rain
In 1971 a quiet man in a business suit hijacked a passenger jet, collected $200,000, and stepped out of the back of the plane into a storm at night. Nobody has seen him since.
Cold Cases · The Strange Case
The Woman in Ice Valley
In 1970, hikers in Norway found the burned body of a woman nobody could identify. She had travelled under at least eight false names. Half a century later, we still don’t know who she was.
Cold Cases · The Story
The House in Villisca
One summer night in 1912, eight people were killed in a small Iowa town. A preacher was tried twice. Nobody was ever convicted, and the house still stands.
Cold Cases · The Strange Case
The Footprints at Hinterkaifeck
Before six people were killed on a remote Bavarian farm in 1922, the farmer found footprints in the snow leading to his house — and none leading away. The case was never solved.
Cold Cases · The Strange Case
The Night Max Headroom Hijacked Chicago
In 1987, a man in a rubber mask took over two Chicago TV stations, rambled, hummed, and was spanked with a flyswatter on air. He was never caught.
Cold Cases · The Story
The Cipher That Took 51 Years
In 1969, a killer mailed a page of 340 strange symbols to a San Francisco newspaper. For half a century, nobody could read it. In 2020, three amateurs finally did.
Cold Cases · The Person
The Eleven Days Agatha Christie Disappeared
In December 1926, the world’s future best-selling mystery writer vanished, sparking a nationwide manhunt. She turned up in a spa hotel under someone else’s name — and never explained why.
Browse by category
The daily log
- The Deepest Hole Ever Dug Science
- The Book Nobody Can Read Mysteries
- The War That Lasted Less Than an Hour History
- Why Don't We Remember Being Babies? Psychology
- The Jellyfish That Hits Rewind Nature
- The Summer Strasbourg Couldn't Stop Dancing Weird
- The Man Who Didn't Believe the Computer People
- The Concrete That Heals Itself Ancient World
- The Emus Won Modern World
- The Chocolate Bar That Melted in the Lab Technology
- If You Replace Every Plank, Is It Still the Same Ship? Philosophy
- Why Medieval Knights Keep Fighting Snails Art
- The Day Boston Drowned in Molasses History
- The Man With a Hole in His Head Psychology
- The Year Without a Summer Science
- The Explosion That Flattened a Forest Space
- The Girl Who Found Sea Dragons People
- The Pope Who Put a Corpse on Trial History
- The Lake That Exploded Geography
- The Goat Behind Door Number Three Random
- Where Is Everybody? Space
- The Banana Your Grandparents Ate Nature
- When a Tulip Cost as Much as a House Economics
- The 2,000-Year-Old Computer Ancient World
- The Temple Older Than Farming Ancient World
- The Day the Sun Set Telegraphs on Fire Space
- The Alien in the Aquarium Nature
- What Happens When a Whale Dies Nature
- The Colony That Vanished Mysteries
- The Tent Cut Open From the Inside Mysteries
- The Pill That Works Even When You Know It's Fake Psychology
- The Loneliest Place on Earth Geography
- The Mixtape We Sent to the Stars Music
- Can Anyone Actually Hear a Stradivarius? Music
- The Hijacker Who Jumped Into the Rain Cold Cases
- The Man on Somerton Beach Cold Cases
- The Woman in Ice Valley Cold Cases
- The House in Villisca Cold Cases
- The Footprints at Hinterkaifeck Cold Cases
- Thirteen Empty Frames Cold Cases
- The Night Max Headroom Hijacked Chicago Cold Cases
- The Summer the Mona Lisa Vanished Cold Cases
- The Cipher That Took 51 Years Cold Cases
- The Eleven Days Agatha Christie Disappeared Cold Cases