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The rise and fall and rise of British canals
The national canal network of Britain powered its Industrial Revolution, then fell into disuse, and then rose again in the late 20th century. Lesbardd, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons When people...
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Rousseau’s children
Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a seminal text on education and raising children. He also abandoned five of his own children soon after their births. Unknown author, Public domain, via...
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The false positive paradox
Consider a medical test for a disease suffered by 1% of the population, which has a 5% “false positive” error rate. If you test positive, what are the chances that you are actually ill? In fact, it’s...
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Lunar garbage collection
The second mission to land on the Moon had garbage collection duty: they picked up the remains of a probe that had crashed there two years earlier. NASA, Alan L. Bean, Public domain, via Wikimedia...
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The extinction of Nosferatu
The classic horror film Nosferatu was nearly lost forever because of Bram Stoker’s widow. J.-H. Janßen, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons In 1921, the German film studio Prana Film wanted to make a vampire...
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