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.
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48 articles, filed with more enthusiasm than order.
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Eleven fascinating things… for “sound”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mysteries · The Theory
The Tent Cut Open From the Inside
In February 1959, nine experienced hikers died on a mountainside in the Soviet Urals after fleeing their tent into the snow, half-dressed. For sixty years, it fuelled wild theories. Science may finally have the answer.
Psychology · The Question
The Pill That Works Even When You Know It's Fake
Sugar pills can make people feel better. That much is familiar. The stranger finding is that, in some studies, they help even when patients are told exactly what they are.
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 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.
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- 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