Welcome. The True Strange News Archives is a 20+ year grab-bag of generally positive news and interesting stuff. Discover and explore unusual science breakthroughs, odd ideas and unlikely true events from around the world. Purposefully ad free, pure education/entertainment, because that’s the way the Internet began.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN today announced that the first new generic Top-Level Domains gTLDs from its New gTLD Program were delegated. This means they were introduced into the Internet’s Root Zone, the central authoritative database for the Internet’s Domain Name System. As a result, the domain name Registries, the organizations… Read More »
This strange crash was captured on a security camera. The driver was suspected of being intoxicated.
Scientists – and parents – have long wondered why we don’t remember anything that happened before age 3. As all parents know, no matter how momentous an event is in a toddler’s life, the memory soon drifts away and within months there isn’t even a wisp of it left. Now a new study shows that… Read More »
… Called upsalite in honor of the university where it was discovered, the material features a surface area of 800 square meters per gram. It’s got the highest surface area measured for a synthesized alkali metal carbonate. And in addition, upsalite is filled with empty pores all having a diameter smaller than 10 nanometers. This… Read More »
Picture an assembly line not that isn’t made up of robotic arms spewing sparks to weld heavy steel, but a warehouse of plastic-spraying printers producing light, cheap and highly efficient automobiles. If Jim Kor’s dream is realized, that’s exactly how the next generation of urban runabouts will be produced. His creation is called the Urbee… Read More »
“Consider the human brain,” says the physicist Sir Roger Penrose. “If you look at the entire physical cosmos, our brains are a tiny, tiny part of it. But they’re the most perfectly organized part. Compared to the complexity of a brain, a galaxy is just an inert lump.” In a new study, scientists argue that… Read More »
Tony Goldberg, a US professor of pathobiological science, recently returned from an Africa research trip only to discover that a potentially new species of tick had come back with him hidden up his nose. “When you first realize you have a tick up your nose, it takes a lot of willpower not to claw your… Read More »
Lake Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest and deepest subsurface lake, might contain thousands of different kinds of tiny organisms — and perhaps bigger fish as well, researchers report. The lake, buried under more than 2 miles (3.7 kilometers) of Antarctic ice, has been seen as an earthly analog for ice-covered seas on such worlds as Europa and… Read More »
In a first for interplanetary exploration, NASA engineers said Wednesday that the $2.5 billion Curiosity robot rover successfully mined material from inside a rock on Mars, advancing the agency’s search for conditions once favorable for microbial life. Held in a scoop on the rover’s mechanical arm, the tablespoon of pulverized gray rock offers planetary scientists… Read More »
Carrie Fisher to return as Leia in new Star Wars films … The actress says she’ll reprise the galactic role that made her famous … Actress Carrier Fisher will return to a galaxy far, far away to play the role of Princess Leia in the next Star Wars movie. In an interview with Palm Beach… Read More »
Taiwanese lawmakers have exchanged punches and thrown water at each other ahead of an expected vote authorizing a referendum on whether to go ahead with the construction of a fourth power plant. Friday’s fracas pitted the pro-referendum forces of President Ma Ying-jeou’s ruling Nationalist Party against strongly anti-nuclear forces affiliated with the main opposition Democratic… Read More »
A new synthetic metabolic pathway developed by chemical engineering researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, can break down sugars quickly and efficiently. The researchers believe that the rate in which this new pathway allows for the breakdown of glucose could lead to a 50 percent increase in the production of biofuels. The new… Read More »
They look for all the world like a collection of flowers bursting into life. Yet in fact, these are microscopic crystals grown in a Harvard laboratory. Measuring just microns across, they were created to assemble themselves a molecule at a time. The team say the work, carried out on glass slides, is able to control… Read More »
There are two broad categories of intelligence: crystallized and fluid. Crystallized intelligence is the ability to utilize information, skills, and experience already learned. Fluid intelligence is the ability to identify patterns, solve novel problems, and use logic in new situations. It makes us creative, aware, innovative, and visionary. To improve crystallized knowledge, learn: read, listen… Read More »
Archaeologists in Mexico have found 4,926 well-preserved cave paintings in the north-eastern region of Burgos. The images in red, yellow, black and white depict humans, animals and insects, as well as skyscapes and abstract scenes. The paintings were found in 11 different sites – but the walls of one cave were covered with 1,550 scenes.… Read More »
NASA has revealed its plans to create the coldest spot in the known universe on board the International Space Station in 2016. The researchers are preparing to study matter at temperatures near absolute zero, revealing the world of quantum mechanics. The US space agency has announced that its researchers are currently working on the Cold… Read More »
A Star Trek style deflector shield that could protect deep-space astronauts, such as the much-discussed manned mission to Mars, from cancer-causing levels of radiation is in testing, researchers have revealed. The system, described as a “mini-magnetosphere” in reference to the Earth’s magnetic field which protects us from solar radiation, is the handiwork of the Rutherford… Read More »