Science

Dead skin cells, pet hair and carpet fibres are part of the cornucopia of ingredients that make up dust. No surprises there, but could dust have a sinister side?

Mostly invisible to the naked eye, dark lightning produces enormous bursts of gamma rays that create showers of electrons and positrons, the electrons’ anti-matter equivalent.

Scientists are fascinated and confounded by Walking Corpse Syndrome, a condition that leaves people believing that they are real-life versions of the walkers that fill our television and movie screens.

Some people experience a compulsion to step off the edge of high places. This illogical urge is called l’appel du vide by the French but translates into English as the more ominous-sounding call of the void.

A Swiss scientist in the late 1940s begun testing spiders on drugs to determine how various chemicals affected a spider’s ability to spin a web. Now NASA continues the research.

A fear of large objects such as statues, boats, planes, and elephants, megalophobia is an anxiety disorder that can be treated with counselling and therapy.

Thalassophobia is different than aquaphobia, which is simply a fear of water. Those who suffer from thalassophobia fear large bodies of water that are dark and deep, where what lays beneath is unknown.

Fried food connoisseur and culinary chef Jonathan Marcus found a way to make deep fried water but admits that it’s “the blandest deep-fried thing” he’s ever tasted.

If your hair turned white or gray almost overnight, you may have Marie Antoinette Syndrome

The number of elephants in the wild has dropped by a third in the last decade. Despite recent reductions in poaching there are still estimated to be 20,000 elephants killed each year. Could a new strain of elephant-mammoth hybrid help save the species?