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.
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61 articles, filed with more enthusiasm than order.
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40 fascinating things… for “ice”
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.
Nature · The Deep Dive
The Glacier That Bleeds
In one of the coldest, driest places on Earth, a blood-red stream pours out of the face of an Antarctic glacier. It isn't blood, and it isn't algae. It is ancient salty water, sealed away for perhaps a million years — and something is living in it.
Mysteries · The Theory
The Sound From the Bottom of the World
In 1997, underwater microphones picked up an enormous, mysterious sound in the remote South Pacific. Some people said it must be a giant creature. The truth turned out to be colder.
Music · The Story
The Sound That Rises Forever
The Shepard tone seems to climb endlessly upwards in pitch without ever getting higher. It's an audio illusion — and filmmakers use it to make your heart race.
Nature · The Deep Dive
The Bay That Glows in the Dark
On moonless nights in a small bay in Puerto Rico, every paddle stroke, every fish and every splash lights up with blue-green fire. The glow comes from billions of tiny living things, each flashing for a fraction of a second.
Technology · The Strange Case
The Missile Guided by Pigeons
During the Second World War, the psychologist B. F. Skinner trained pigeons to steer bombs by pecking at a target on a screen. It worked surprisingly well. Nobody took it seriously.
Science · The Theory
The Glowing Balls of the Storm
For centuries, people have reported glowing spheres drifting through the air during thunderstorms, floating into houses and even aeroplanes. Scientists doubted them for a long time. Then, in 2012, one was caught on camera by accident.
Geography · The Deep Dive
The Land No Country Wants
Between Egypt and Sudan lies a patch of desert larger than many cities that neither country will claim. The reason is a lesson in how borders really work.
History · The Theory
The Jar That Might Have Been a Battery
In the 1930s, a German archaeologist in Baghdad described an ancient clay jar containing a copper tube and an iron rod. Fill it with vinegar, he suggested, and it would make electricity. Was it a two-thousand-year-old battery? Most archaeologists think not.
Aviation · The Story
The Day a Jet Ran Out of Fuel at 41,000 Feet
In 1983, an almost brand-new Boeing 767 ran completely dry over Canada. The pilots had to glide it down to an abandoned air base — which, unknown to them, was hosting a family racing day.
Nature · The Deep Dive
The Salamander That Never Grows Up
The axolotl spends its whole life looking like a smiling tadpole with frilly gills. It can regrow lost legs, parts of its heart and even its spinal cord. In the wild, it has almost vanished.
Nature · The Theory
The Loneliest Whale in the World
Since 1989, ocean microphones have picked up the song of a single whale singing at a frequency no other whale seems to use. It's been called the loneliest whale in the world. The truth is more complicated.
Music · The Story
The Secret Song Mozart Stole by Ear
For over a century, the Vatican kept a piece of choral music so jealously that it was said copying it was forbidden. In 1770, a fourteen-year-old Mozart heard it once in the Sistine Chapel, went home and wrote it down from memory.
Economics · The Deep Dive
The Island Where Money Sat at the Bottom of the Sea
On the Pacific island of Yap, money came in the form of giant stone wheels, some taller than a person. One of them was lost at sea — and kept being spent anyway.
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.
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.
People · The Person
The Girl Who Found Sea Dragons
Mary Anning was poor, had little schooling, and was barred from the scientific societies of her day because she was a woman. She also found some of the most important fossils in history.
Random · The Question
The Goat Behind Door Number Three
In 1990, a magazine columnist answered a simple puzzle about a game show. Thousands of readers, including mathematicians, wrote in to tell her she was wrong. She wasn't.
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.
Ancient World · The Deep Dive
The 2,000-Year-Old Computer
In 1901, divers pulled a corroded lump of bronze from an ancient shipwreck. It turned out to be a geared machine for predicting the heavens — and nothing as complex would be built again for more than a thousand years.
Ancient World · The Deep Dive
The Temple Older Than Farming
On a hilltop in Turkey stand giant carved stone pillars that are around 11,000 years old — older than Stonehenge, older than writing, and possibly older than agriculture itself.
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 Man on Somerton Beach
In 1948 a well-dressed stranger was found dead on an Australian beach, with the labels cut from his clothes and a scrap of poetry hidden in his pocket. It took 74 years to learn his name.
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
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 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 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.
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.
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- The Glacier That Bleeds Nature
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- The Sound From the Bottom of the World Mysteries
- The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste Mysteries
- The Fake History of the Bathtub History
- The Sound That Rises Forever Music
- The Bay That Glows in the Dark Nature
- The Missile Guided by Pigeons Technology
- The Glowing Balls of the Storm Science
- The Land No Country Wants Geography
- The Jar That Might Have Been a Battery History
- The Day a Jet Ran Out of Fuel at 41,000 Feet Aviation
- The Salamander That Never Grows Up Nature
- The Loneliest Whale in the World Nature
- The Secret Song Mozart Stole by Ear Music
- The Island Where Money Sat at the Bottom of the Sea Economics
- 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