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The Man Behind Florida's Favorite Cryptid, The Skunk Ape
Dave Shealy and the Skunk Ape sculpture. (Photo: Lucia Davis)Unlike the elusive primate that it chronicles, it's impossible to miss The Skunk Ape Research Headquarters.Tucked in the middle of Florida's...
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Art, Armor, and Airbags: Spider Silk As A Miracle Material
That spider is sitting on a goldmine! (Photo: Takuma Kimura on Flickr)At Will Knight’s Spider Web Farm in Williamstown, Vermont, the farmers don’t rely on Charlotte’s Web-style barnyard serendipity to...
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The Soviet Military Secret That Could Become Alaska's Most Valuable Crop
Rhodiola rosea. (Photo: Botanischer Garten TU Darmstat/Flickr) Al Poindexter’s front yard in the south-central plain of Alaska has been taken over by a spread of more than 2,000 cell trays, each...
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FOUND: Empty Animal Mummies
A crocodile mummy mask at the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich (Photo: captmondo/Wikimedia)In addition to mummifying humans, the ancient Egyptians mummified millions of animals—ibises, cats,...
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Amazonians Know These Floating Islands Weren't Made by Giant Anacondas—But...
(Photo: Carolina Freitas)In the floodplains of the Brazilian Amazon, in lakes where the currents are not too strong, there are floating forest islands—locals call them matupás. It’s difficult to walk...
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Nepal's Dream Library Has Been Partially Destroyed
The amazing Kaiser Library, before the recent disastrous earthquakes. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.)Since 1895, Kathmandu has had a library so fantastical that its outdoor area is called the Garden of...
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The Man Who Couldn't Stop Buying Dinosaur Art
John Lanzendorf: hairdresser to the stars and unparalleled collector of dino art. (Photo: Courtesy Children’s Museum of Indianapolis)“At one time, I could name 700 dinosaurs,” says John...
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The Early Female Aviator Who Flew Across the Atlantic in Terrible Weather
Beryl Markham in New York, after flying across the Atlantic. (Photo: Courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/ Leslie Jones Collection) This is the fourth part in a five-part series about...
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Revenge Zombies and Necropants: A Brief History of Icelandic Sorcery
Lick my face or I eat your brains. (Photo: Bernard McManus on Flickr)From the ghoulish pants made of human flesh to the unsettling "tilberi", an object made of a person's rib that looks like a...
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LOST: A Miniature Version of Denver’s Famous Blue Bear
The stolen bear (Photo: Denver Police Department)In the Skyline Park, in downtown Denver, there’s a mini-golf course, designed to resemble “a mini-Downtown Denver complete with iconic landmarks.” Those...
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It's Finally Summertime: 8 of the World's Coolest Swimming Pools
This one is just to make you jealous while you're at work. (Photo: Kyle Pearce on Flickr)Happy summer everyone! It's getting hot out, so let's shed some layers and find a pool to chill out in. But why...
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Everything You Need to Know about Buying a Town
Garnet, MO is for sale.(Photo: David J Laporte/Flickr)Every once in awhile, a close look at real estate listings turns up something odd: not merely a house, not merely land, but an entire town,...
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Found: Mysterious and Unnamed Sea Creatures
A foraminifera, maybe. (Image: Courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Océano Profundo 2015: Exploring Puerto Rico’s Seamounts, Trenches, and Troughs)Last month, a ship called the Okeanos Explorer...
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7 Maps That Only Could Have Been Made in the 20th Century
Detail from Mare Undarum, Lunar Map (Image: Courtesy of UChicago Press) Mapmaking may now be a more popular activity than in any other time in history—every time a person looks for directions online, a...
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Islamabad: Allergy Capital of the World
Islamabad. Not pictured: runny noses, teary eyes of locals. (Photo: Ahmed Sajjad Zaidi/Flickr)Springtime can mean many things, but for allergy sufferers, it's the season of sneezing and some cities are...
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Meet the Residents of the Desert Ecocity That's Been Under Construction for...
Arcosanti (Photo: Cody/Flickr)Down a dirt road, about an hour from Phoenix, Paolo Soleri’s vision of a sustainable city rises out of the desert. Five thousand people were supposed to live here, in a...
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Found: A Colored Crayfish That Looks Fake But Is Totally Real
It is pretty beautiful! (Photo: ZooKeys)Christian Lukhaup named this creature "beautiful"—Cherax pulcher, the beautiful aquatic crayfish. He first saw the cotton candy-colored crayfish in a photo,...
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The 7 Strangest Retellings of India's Greatest Epic Tales
At the Bhagavad Gita Museum, one of the India's greatest stories—700 lines of the Mahabharata in which Arjuna and Krishna discuss their values and ideals—is retold by a series of talking clay robots....
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Behold These Gorgeous Mosaics Made of Insects
(Photo: © 2015 Christopher Marley)Most American children grow up with frozen pizzas and popsicles in the freezer. But when artist Christopher Marley opened his childhood icebox in Oregon, he was often...
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