Thwarting the biopirates
India prevented people patenting their foods, traditional medicines, and yoga poses by recording them all in an online database: 34 million pages’ worth.
The real touch of death
Chinese wuxia (and derivative Western) fiction describes the touch of death, a single blow that can kill an opponent. Surprisingly, this is actually possible.
Leopold’s manoeuvres
Without ultrasound, how do you know whether a fetus in utero is facing the right way? You use Leopold’s manoeuvres.
Fashionable limp
Queen Alexandra had a scar and a limp – and British fashion followed suit.
Dancing plagues
Sudden bouts of contagious dancing plagued pre-modern Europe – afflicting up to a thousand people at a time.
The town of no appendices
Before you move into Villa Las Estrellas you must have your appendix removed.
Sixth to ninth senses
The human senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste. Also balance, pain, proprioception, and interoception.
Genetic hitchhikers
A mutated gene that improves reproductive success spreads widely – this is one of the principles of evolution. But sometimes other genes come along for the ride.
Secret war on malaria
As part of a secret government project begun in 1967, the Chinese scientist Tu Youyou discovered an ancient herbal remedy that would end up saving millions of lives.
Knockout mice
How do you work out the function of a specific gene? Knock them out one by one and see what happens.
Fatal insomnia
You can’t die from lack of sleep. Except when a genetic mutation prevents you from sleeping at all.
Animal diseases
Animals have some of the best old-timey disease names, including heartwater, foulbrood, bluetongue, glanders, scrapie, camelpox, and bumblefoot.
Medieval sleep
The historian A. Roger Ekirch has argued that in Medieval Europe, and in many places prior to the Industrial Revolution, people would habitually wake up for an hour in the middle of the night.
Stages of death
When a human dies, they go through several distinct stages. In order: pale, cold, stiff, mottled, putrefied, decomposed, skeletonized.
Vulture crisis
The use of the anti-inflammatory drug Diclofenac on cattle led – very indirectly – to the rise of rabies and leopards in India. And it’s all because of vultures.
