America Hates Serial Killers. So Why Do We Make Them Famous?
Some of America’s most famous criminals are responsible for a crime that is remarkably rare. Yet their names became household words, their faces appeared on television, and…
One Volcano Rises 17 Miles Above Mars—and It’s Not Even the Strangest Giant
The biggest volcano in the solar system is so enormous it would make Mount Everest look small—and it isn’t even on Earth. But that’s not the strangest…
Dragons Were Supposed to Be Mythical. So Why Did Nearly Every Civilization Invent Them?
Thousands of years before Game of Thrones, people in China, Babylon, Europe and the Americas were already telling stories about enormous serpent-like creatures with claws, scales, wings…
Sunlight Turned This Pacific Island Into a Giant Silver Mirror
From space, this remote Pacific island looked as if someone had poured liquid metal across the ocean. The water around Rennell Island had turned silver. So had…
Everyone Is Still Waiting for Flying Cars. The First Ones Were Imagined Nearly 200 Years Ago
A car with wings drove through Times Square. Another was designed to reach 500 mph without using wheels. One flying car crashed during testing and ended the…
Born With Five Legs, This Puppy Was Not Expected to Survive
When Ellery Max was born in Southern California, he looked like no other puppy in the litter. The tiny English bulldog had five legs, developmental problems and…
California Is Coming for Your Tires. Could Your Favorite Performance Rubber Be Next?
California has spent years regulating cars. Now, it is coming for the tires. A new mandate will set efficiency standards for replacement tires sold in the state—and…
The Psychiatrist Who Reformed Mental Health—and the Former Colleague Who Hunted Her Down
She had helped reform mental health care across Australia. Then, one afternoon in 2002, Margaret Tobin stepped out of an elevator at her office in Adelaide and…
10 Old Technologies That Make You Wonder: How Did They Think of This?
In 1955, a tiny electric train ran through New York’s Holland Tunnel—not to carry passengers, but to monitor traffic. More than 300 years earlier, someone had built…
8 Passenger Planes That Took Off—and Never Arrived
When Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in 2014, the world struggled to understand how a modern Boeing 777 carrying 239 people could seemingly vanish. Satellites, radar, aircraft…