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The weirdest things we learned this week: doctors drinking pee and telephones made of cats

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: doctors drinking pee and telephones made of cats

By Popular Science Team

The weirdest thing we learned this week: werewolf tomatoes and overdosing on placebos with Wendy Zukerman

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest thing we learned this week: werewolf tomatoes and overdosing on placebos with Wendy Zukerman

By Rachel Feltman, Eleanor Cummins, Wendy Zukerman

The king behind Machu Picchu built his legacy in stone

By Eleanor Cummins

The increase in Everest deaths may have nothing to do with crowds or waiting

The increase in Everest deaths may have nothing to do with crowds or waiting

By Eleanor Cummins

By destroying this female pharaoh’s legacy, her successor preserved it forever

By Eleanor Cummins

Before there was a periodic table, there was chaos

Before there was a periodic table, there was chaos

By Paul Strathern

Before there was a periodic table, there was chemical chaos

Before there was a periodic table, there was chemical chaos

By Paul Strathern

hummingbird in a purple flower

Thomas Midgley, Jr. may have been the most environmentally disastrous person of all time

By Tom Phillips

blood transfusion

Searching in vein: a history of artificial blood

By Marion Renault

The weirdest things we learned this week: Rats with fetishes and America’s first banana

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Rats with fetishes and America’s first banana

By Claire Maldarelli, Eleanor Cummins, and Rachel Feltman

You know nothing. Meet the real John Snow.

By Sara Chodosh

The weirdest things we learned this week: Blood-thirsty Bambi and 12-foot-tall birds

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Blood-thirsty Bambi and 12-foot-tall birds

By Rachel Feltman

The weirdest things we learned this week: Falcon sex hats and buying human skulls on Instagram

The weirdest things we learned this week: Falcon sex hats and buying human skulls on Instagram

By Rachel Feltman

The weirdest things we learned this week: animals used to stand trial and apples kept doctors from killing you

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: animals used to stand trial and apples kept doctors from killing you

By Eleanor Cummins

Royal Society of London England Isaac Newton Charles II king science

There’s a reason England was able to harness geniuses like Isaac Newton

By Safi Bahcall

stone walls covered in moss

Old stone walls hold secrets to Earth’s wandering magnetic north

By John Delano/The Conversation

a poodle running through a field with a silly haircut

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: 40,000 vanishing pigeons and the science of poodle haircuts

By Rachel Feltman

a painting of people dancing

The weirdest things we learned this week: starting fires with astronaut farts and dancing yourself to death

By Rachel Feltman

a man crouches naked in the woods in an old black and white photo

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: counting vampires and nudist founding fathers

By Rachel Feltman

a tigress licking her paws

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: hot air balloon riots and the man-eatingest tiger

By Rachel Feltman

a man looks at several babies in an incubator

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: strange sneezes and how sideshows saved 6,500 babies

By Rachel Feltman

Charles Darwin wrote enough one-liners to fill a burn book

Charles Darwin wrote enough one-liners to fill a burn book

By Eleanor Cummins

a woman wrangling a cow

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: deadly molasses and the best way to battle cattle

By Rachel Feltman

Cremation research tombs

Your ashes might say more about you than you’d think

By Eleanor Cummins

Rodeo dirt Fort Worth Austin

Dirt can make or break a rodeo

By Eleanor Cummins

birth control pill calendar

The way we take the pill has more to do with religion than science

By Susan Walker/The Conversation

a vintage coca-cola ad

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: the sweetest-smelling butts, flaming birds, and 40 barrels of coke

By Rachel Feltman

an old drawing of a surgery

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: killer surgeons and mysterious floating feet

By Rachel Feltman

a close-up of a combination lock, with the numbers 90 and 0 visible

Zero is just 1,500 years old. Before it, there was nothing.

By Eleanor Cummins

Examination by ophthalmoscope

Victorians worried about books like we worry about iPhones

By Gemma Almond/The Conversation

Early humans hooked up with other species a whole bunch

Early humans hooked up with other species a whole bunch

By Neel V. Patel

Charles Minard is known for the ‘best graphic ever,’ but he may have topped it with these maps

Charles Minard is known for the ‘best graphic ever,’ but he may have topped it with these maps

By Sara Chodosh

The swamp science that lured travelers to their doom—and inspired the jack-o’-lantern

The swamp science that lured travelers to their doom—and inspired the jack-o’-lantern

an illustration of a man pretending to read someone's mind in front of a crowd

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The spookiest things we learned this week

By Rachel Feltman

The oldest weapons in North America offer a new view of prehistoric tech

The oldest weapons in North America offer a new view of prehistoric tech

By Neel V. Patel

a tiny house wrapped in bubble wrap

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: glowing Civil War soldiers and historic font battles

By Eleanor Cummins

Behind the supersonic rise and fall of the Concorde, 15 years after its final flight

Behind the supersonic rise and fall of the Concorde, 15 years after its final flight

By Stefanie Waldek

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: birthing rabbits, gruesome taxidermy, and the Parthenon’s best-kept secret

By Eleanor Cummins

Mount Vesuvius murdered its victims in more brutal ways than we thought

Mount Vesuvius murdered its victims in more brutal ways than we thought

By Neel V. Patel

two women holding a block of ice

The weirdest things we learned this week: Sheep on meth, hopping space robots, and the economy of “Frozen”

By Rachel Feltman

a cow sticking its tongue in its nose

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: holes in people (and cows), illegal cheese, and the world’s worst dairy disaster

By Rachel Feltman

Humans have been messing with the climate for thousands of years

Humans have been messing with the climate for thousands of years

By Marlene Cimons

the statue of liberty

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Lady Liberty’s big secret, the ultimate exercise hack, and a penis in a bottle

By Rachel Feltman

Bogs are beautiful, swampy records of human history

By Henry Chapman, Ben Gearey, Jane Bunting, Kimberley Davies, Nicola Whitehouse/The Conversation

Cheese played a surprisingly important role in human evolution

Cheese played a surprisingly important role in human evolution

By Penny Bickle/The Conversation

7 famous psych studies with troubling backstories

7 famous psych studies with troubling backstories

By Eleanor Cummins

human body sweat

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: eating organs, celebrating sweat, and banning dogs

By Sara Chodosh

Reports of Homo erectus’ laziness are ‘moronic’

Reports of Homo erectus’ laziness are ‘moronic’

How the sunflower transformed from a garden novelty to a mighty beast

How the sunflower transformed from a garden novelty to a mighty beast

By Stephen Harris/The Conversation

walter rothschild zebra carriage

The weirdest things we learned this week: bone flutes, zebra carriages, and laughing gas parties

By Rachel Feltman

two kids stare down into a pool

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: skin-peeling soup, secret drug toilets, and a chlorinated ocean

By Rachel Feltman

Ancient climate change may have dragged the wild horses away

Ancient climate change may have dragged the wild horses away

The first underwater film was lost for decades—until now

The first underwater film was lost for decades—until now

By Anna Brooks and Tom McNamara

How to build a solar microscope

How to build a solar microscope

By William Gurstelle

How to erase your embarrassing old Facebook and Twitter posts

How to erase your embarrassing old Facebook and Twitter posts

By Whitson Gordon

beer lager pour

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Curing syphilis with malaria, ejecting bears from planes, and discovering new beer yeasts

By Rachel Feltman

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: artistic farts, meat lozenges, and Tesla’s beloved pigeon

By Rachel Feltman

Indigo, vermillion, and other ancient colors that have decorated the world for millennia

Indigo, vermillion, and other ancient colors that have decorated the world for millennia

By Sara Chodosh

Dogs spread across the Americas alongside humans. Then they got eaten.

Dogs spread across the Americas alongside humans. Then they got eaten.

a medieval illustration of people cooking

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: scientists doing sex magick, ancient mac and cheese, and contagious writer’s block

By Rachel Feltman

mom child holding hands

These 1950s experiments showed us the trauma of parent-child separation. Now experts say they’re too unethical to repeat—even on monkeys.

By Eleanor Cummins

The weirdest things we learned this week: biblical rhabdo, corpse adventures, and socks from the world’s loneliest island

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: biblical rhabdo, corpse adventures, and socks from the world’s loneliest island

By Rachel Feltman

Five things you might not know about the plague (not including the fact that it still exists)

Five things you might not know about the plague (not including the fact that it still exists)

By Sara Chodosh

spoons full of condiments

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: fake memories, sperm is not full of tiny men, and how ketchup makes the grade

By Rachel Feltman