BBC Futureflipped into NewsCats The fight to save India's most elusive cat verified_publisherBBC Future - Kamala ThiagarajanThe encounter took place on a cool winter morning in 2012, in the coastal Indian city of Visakhapatnam. A gentle breeze nipped at the air as Murthy Kantimahanti stood transfixed, staring at a metal trap...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsSpacecraft The genius behind early Russian space tech verified_publisherBBC Future - Richard HollinghamWithin a few days of returning to Earth, Yuri Gagarin stood alongside Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow’s Red Square to be welcomed by tens of thousands of people cheering his success. It was...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsSeaweed The remarkable power of Australian kelp verified_publisherBBC Future - Isabelle GerretsenMore than 45,000 years ago, by the shore of present-day Tasmania, a local person picked up a large piece of thick, dark brown seaweed. Its impervious tissue and resilient flexibility sparked an idea, they...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsSnakes The global fight against snake bites verified_publisherBBC Future - Richard Gray"In the monsoon, the fields are overgrown with weeds," says Tukaram Rao, a farm labourer from the village of Rathnapuri in Karnataka, south-west India. "We have to walk out in the midst of those at night...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsTom Ellis Yuri Gagarin: the spaceman who came in from the cold verified_publisherBBC Future - Stephen DowlingIt was the smile that clinched it. The first cadre of Soviet space explorers gathered together numbered 20. Among them were Gherman Titov, still the youngest person to fly in space (aged 26), and Alexei...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsGenetics The genetic mistakes that could shape our species verified_publisherBBC Future - Zaria GorvettHe Jiankui seemed nervous. At the time, he was an obscure researcher working at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China. But he had been working on a top-secret project for...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsLanguage The languages with built-in sexism verified_publisherBBC Future - Sophia Smith GalerI like to think of myself as a happy woman – I also like to think of myself as a lover of walking, fairly worldly and easy-going. But to describe myself as any of the above in Italian would be to call...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsHydrogen The hydrogen revolution in the skies verified_publisherBBC Future - Caspar HendersonAs the plane rose from the runway for what was to prove a smooth and uneventful flight, the team breathed a sigh of relief. The six-seater Piper M-Class had been fitted out at a research and development...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsYuri Gagarin How Russia's cosmonauts trained for space verified_publisherBBC Future - Richard HollinghamOn 13 April 1961, Soviet newspaper Izvestia’s special correspondent Georgi Ostroumov meets the first man in space. A day after returning to Earth "space pilot" Yuri Gagarin is, reports Ostroumov, "in spirits,...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsTSA Can you tell when someone is lying? verified_publisherBBC Future - Jessica SeigelPolice thought that 17-year-old Marty Tankleff seemed too calm after finding his mother stabbed to death and his father mortally bludgeoned in the family's sprawling Long Island home. Authorities didn't...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsMental Health Why we shouldn’t be afraid of nightmares verified_publisherBBC Future - William ParkAt the height of the pandemic, a strange phenomenon occurred – people started having weird dreams. The effect seems to have been most pronounced in those particularly affected by the virus and in countries...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsFungi The seed bank that's inadvertently storing fungi verified_publisherBBC Future - Rowena HillThis was the moment of truth. We'd spent countless hours meticulously sterilising seeds (1,710, to be specific), filling the lab with a cacophony of rattling as we shook them in bleach. We'd built a fungus...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsBiological Species The invasive weed that travelled the world verified_publisherBBC Future - Nalova AkuaA flock of water birds scavenges for insects on the dense, leafy weed that covers much of Lake Ossa, one of Cameroon's largest lakes. The water weed is so closely packed that it looks like wide, flat pasture,...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsUniverse The mystery of how big our Universe really is verified_publisherBBC Future - Abigail BeallLet's start by saying the Universe is big. When we look in any direction, the furthest visible regions of the Universe are estimated to be around 46 billion light years away. That's a diameter of 540 (or...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsCulture The forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name verified_publisherBBC Future - Zaria GorvettIn 2011, archaeologists found something unusual in a Roman toilet. The team were excavating the ancient village of Tasgetium (now Eschenz, Switzerland), ruled by a Celtic king who was personally given...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsMetadata The hidden fingerprint inside your photos verified_publisherBBC Future - Jerone AndrewsOn 3 October 2020, the White House published two photographs of Donald Trump, signing papers and reading briefings. The day before, Trump had announced he had caught the coronavirus and these photos were...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsZoology The scientists releasing cats in Australia verified_publisherBBC Future - Elizabeth Kolbert"I spent 15 years removing cats from fenced reserves and national parks," says Katherine Moseby. "And then, all of a sudden, I was putting them back in. It felt very strange to be doing that." It is a...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsChinese University of Hong Kong The rivers that 'breathe' greenhouse gases verified_publisherBBC Future - Matthew KeeganAt first glance you would assume the New Territories were one of Hong Kong's greenest areas – the region that borders the Chinese mainland and makes up the bulk of Hong Kong's territory seems a world from...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsGambia The factories turning West Africa’s fish into powder verified_publisherBBC Future - Ian UrbinaGunjur, a town of some 15,000 people, sits on the Atlantic coastline of southern Gambia, the smallest country on the African continent. During the day, its white-sand beaches are full of activity. Fishermen...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsTranslation The languages that defy auto-translate verified_publisherBBC Future - Sophie HardachImagine you come across a message that could contain life-saving information. But there's a problem: you don't understand a word. You're not even sure which of the world's thousands of languages it is...
BBC Futureflipped into News The ancient invention that ignited game play verified_publisherBBC Future - William ParkAs the fire dwindles in the hearth, a family picks through the remains of their feast, turning over the bones for any remaining flesh. It is about 3000BC in Skara Brae, a small neolithic settlement on...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsCats Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you verified_publisherBBC Future - Ali BoyleThere’s an old stereotype about the difference between cats and dogs. Dogs are loving and fiercely loyal, they say, while cats are aloof and indifferent. Most cat people probably disagree – I certainly...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsFabrics The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make verified_publisherBBC Future - Zaria GorvettIn late 18th-Century Europe, a new fashion led to an international scandal. In fact, an entire social class was accused of appearing in public naked. The culprit was Dhaka muslin, a precious fabric imported...
BBC Futureflipped into News The human right that benefits nature verified_publisherBBC Future - Katarina ZimmerThe history behind one of Costa Rica’s most important environmental commitments reads something like a legal fairytale. It started nearly 30 years ago, with a young boy who wanted to stop the pollution...
BBC Futureflipped into News Why noise pollution is bad for your heart verified_publisherBBC Future - Cypress HansenIn 2011, Germany's Frankfurt Airport – the country's busiest – unveiled its fourth runway. The addition sparked major protests, with demonstrators returning to the airport every Monday for years. "It's...
BBC Futureflipped into News Covid-19 paused climate emissions – but they're rising again verified_publisherBBC Future - Piers ForsterThe planet had already warmed by around 1.2C since pre-industrial times when the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020. This began a sudden and unprecedented drop in...
BBC Futureflipped into NewsHubble Space Telescope The 'star-fiend' who unlocked the Universe verified_publisherBBC Future - Leila McNeillA century ago, the Universe seemed like a much smaller place. Many astronomers were convinced that our home galaxy of the Milky Way made up the entirety of the cosmos. That changed in 1923 when astronomer...
BBC Futureflipped into News The device that reverses CO2 emissions verified_publisherBBC Future - Frank SwainThe year is 2050. Walk out of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas, and drive north across the sun-baked scrub where a few remaining oil pumpjacks nod lazily in the heat, and then you'll...
BBC Futureflipped into News Why some people can deal with the cold verified_publisherBBC Future - William ParkPlunging into ice baths post-workout might be how some professional athletes choose to recover, but anyone trying to keep fit in the winter will know that the cold can be as harsh as it is rejuvenating....
BBC Futureflipped into NewsForests The wonder material we all need but is running out verified_publisherBBC Future - Frank SwainNatural rubber is a uniquely tough, flexible and highly waterproof material. It puts tyres on our vehicles, soles on our shoes, it makes seals for engines and refrigerators, insulates wires and other components....
