Science

The answer to the question “Why are clouds white?” lies in how different-sized particles scatter the light that passes through clouds.

Have you ever tried to pluck a word from memory and it just doesn’t come to mind? The term can often seem within our grasp but tantalisingly beyond reach. Meet lethologica.

Cotton Candy grapes are a taste sensation but the path to cotton candy enlightenment was an arduous journey. From ten thousand plants, just one was selected.

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.