In 2013, at a press conference in London, food technician Peter Verstrate and scientist Mark Post unveiled the first ‘cultured’ beef burger. It cost £215,000 (around US$295,000) and had taken them seven years to make. It was a start.
Cultured meat, also known as lab-grown meat, cell-based meat, or more colloquially ‘meatless’ meat, is an idea whose time has come. And not just cultured meat — plant-based meats, designed to be indistinguishable from the genuine article, have already hit the market in a big way.
The popularity of alternative meats has surged in recent years, and it is a development…
Her name was Tibbles
In 1894, David Lyall became the assistant lighthouse keeper on Stephens Island, a remote place at the northernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island. The lighthouse and outpost had just opened, and even though there were sixteen others moving in, Lyall foresaw some lonely times ahead.
So, Lyall brought along his cat Tibbles. Who happened to be pregnant.
Lyall discovers a new species
Lyall was a naturalist and was keen to examine the native species of the island. Twice he caught glimpses of a small bird he described as a ‘rock wren’. …
The hoax revealed Barnum’s genius for press manipulation and publicity
In early 1822, an American captain called Samuel Eades and his crew rescued sailors from a sinking Dutch merchant ship. They also managed to save an item of cargo that fascinated Eades — the stuffed body of a dead mermaid the Dutch crew had bought from a Japanese fisherman.
Eades became obsessed with the mermaid to the point where he got into debt to raise the $6000 asking price the Dutch demanded. Broke and without a job, Eades displayed the “Remarkable Stuffed Mermaid” in Cape Town and then London. …
Jack the baboon worked for the South African railway for nine flawless years
In the late 19th Century, a railway signalman called James Edwin ‘Jumper’ Wide worked for the South African railways as a guard in a town called Uitenhage. He got his nickname from his dangerous habit of jumping or swinging from one railcar to another.
Unfortunately for Jumper, this predictably went horribly wrong one day. While leaping from one railcar to the next, he slipped on some canvas and fell under a moving train. The heavy steel wheels severed his legs below the knees.
Jumper Wide was lucky…
To win the civil war, the future Emperor Augustus used some very underhanded tactics
Fake news seems to be everywhere these days. But it is not a new phenomenon. Throughout history, there have been numerous examples of notable people stretching the truth and either exaggerating or flat-out lying about their rivals or their own achievements.
Sometimes the effects of these lies are minor or disappear within a year or two. However, in some notable cases, the resulting changes can last considerably longer and completely change a society or civilization. One of the most remarkable examples of this led to the rise of the first Roman Emperor: Augustus. …
She was also arrested, her head shaved, and narrowly avoided execution
Marie Tussaud is world-renowned for her waxwork museums. She was an incredible wax sculptress, and her ability to capture famous likenesses led to her fame. What a lot of people don’t know, however, is her remarkable story.
Her skills elevated her to the top of elite Parisian society in the 19th century — just before the French Revolution. This led to a death sentence and eventually to her casting wax heads from the real ones piled at the base of the guillotine. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Early life and the start of an amazing career
Marie was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1761. Her father, Joseph…
Ghosts, spirits, myths and demons in the Land of Smiles
Working as a freelance journalist in Thailand, I have covered a vast array of topics but few were as interesting to research as an article I wrote called ‘Ghosts and Spirits of Thailand’. My editor renamed it ‘Haunted Thailand’ which I will be the first to admit is a much snappier title. I had been commissioned to write an 800-word piece on the more popular ghosts and/or hauntings in the country but after a brief bit of investigation, I realised that would not be enough. The subject was fascinating. …
Fewer cats led to more plague bearing rats, or so the story goes
People have mixed attitudes toward cats. Some people love them and some not so much. But historically speaking, the pendulum has swung much further to each extreme.
The Egyptians worshipped cats for thousands of years, associating them with the goddess Bastet. Their love for them was so well known that in the Battle of Pelusium in 525 BCE, the invading Persians painted the image of Bastet on their shields and drove cats and other sacred animals before them, hoping the Egyptians would give up rather than risk hurting the animals. …
And cases have shot up over the last 50 years
A little over two hundred years ago, no one even knew hay fever existed. There were people suffering from it, but it was so rare it had gone unnoticed.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a British physician called John Bostock started to search for what caused a mysterious summer illness that had affected him every year since childhood. He scoured the UK for similar sufferers but was only able to find 28 cases.
To put that in perspective, 16 million people are now affected each year in the UK. Currently, in the West, hay fever affects between 10…
By most definitions, you have 9 or 21. And seeing dead people isn’t one of them
Everyone knows you have five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. This belief probably originates with Aristotle and his writing in De Anima, where he states these five.
A sixth one means you are psychic or see dead people. (That was a joke.)
Except, by any way you measure them, five is incorrect. You have… well, it’s debated. Part of the problem comes from how we define what a sense is. Different people will give you different answers depending on their speciality and personal definition.
The most common replies would be 9, 21 or several hundred.
First, let’s look…
