Talk to Frank

Fact: Money has the same effect on your brain as cocaine. In a revelation that goes a long way toward explaining the Wall Street obsession with cocaine, it turns out that your brain gets off on dollar bills just as much as it does from popping pills. In all our brains we have an area…

Stick or Twist?

Fact: The Great Wall of China is held together by sticky rice.  It was built to defend an empire from hoards of enemies and has stood for centuries as a Wonder of the World, but the true strength of the Great Wall of China comes from a grain of rice. Not just one grain of…

In Black and White

Fact: Pandas were saved by capitalism. In 1958, pandas were on the brink of extinction. 60 years later, they’re breeding like rabbits in zoos across the world and are now classified as ‘vulnerable’ rather than the far-more-ominous ‘endangered’. Dragging themselves back from the brink was no mean feat, particularly when you realise that 1958 was…

Pitch Perfect

Fact: Birds have accents depending on where they’re from. You might struggle to hear the English behind a thick Scottish accent or mock a Londoner for speaking like the queen, but regional accents are so natural that even birds have them. These ‘accents’ can be found in the singing of songbirds. Listen very carefully and…

The Golden Rule

Fact: You can turn lead into gold.  For centuries kings and men alike have chased the dream of turning lead into gold, otherwise known as alchemy. They made one fatal flaw – they never asked a physicist. Turning lead into gold sounds like the reserve of the desperate or the downright crazy, but it is…

To Infinity and Beyond

Fact: If you add up all the positive numbers in existence, it comes to a total of -1/12. You might think that infinity is a big number, but if you add up all the positive numbers in the world you end up with a paltry -1/12. Yeah it sounds crazy, and no it doesn’t make…

Colour Mixing

Fact: The colour purple doesn’t exist. More fake news: purple isn’t a thing. I know you think you know better, but you don’t – there is no such thing as purple. It’s all in your head. How can that be, when you’ve seen it with your own eyes? Well, therein lies the problem. Your eyes…

Will It Blend?

Fact: There’s a jellyfish which can survive being put in a blender. It’s not the first time we talked about jellyfish being awesome (we already know they can live forever), but even more impressive is their ability to survive a battle with your average kitchen blender. This impressive skill is held by a freshwater cousin of…

The Student Loan Conundrum

Question: Should I pay off my student loan? It’s the most glorious of times – a new tax year. In celebration, I’m doing something a little different and taking on one of the most common but confusing topics around – whether you should pay off your student loan. Spoiler alert: maybe, it depends. First up,…

On The Lash

Fact: You’ve got animals living in your eyelashes. One may flutter them at a bartender to make sure you get served quickly, but in reality your eyelashes are teeming with their own ecosystem of tiny mites – which slightly ruins their sex appeal. These mites are called Demodex folliculorum, and they make their home inside your hair…

Part 2: Guilty Pleasures

Fact: Getting an infection can change your sexual fantasies. You might think from Part 1 that parasites can only control the simple minds of insects, but you’d be wrong. One parasite has adapted to alter the behaviour of mammals – and it can even change what turns you on. The villain in question is Toxoplasma Gondii, a…

Part 1: Behavioural Therapy

Fact: Parasites can force insects to kill themselves. It sounds like science fiction, but that’s only because human’s haven’t worked it out yet. Parasites have perfected incredibly advanced mind control techniques – with some pretty morbid consequences. Parasites reproduce in host animals or plants at the expense of those hosts: as long as the parasite…