Friday Diversion

It may have taken humans millennia to evolve into an upright position—but a new study suggests we may be on our way back down. Or maybe not? A study (from 2018) making headlines this week suggested that spending inordinate amounts of time tilting their heads phone-ward is…

“Binge-watch” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary a year ago, lending further credence to what might be obvious: This is the era of TV streaming.

Think about it: You're a New York City subway conductor and a passenger approaches with a large woolly dog hoisted up in a burlap sack—does it count as a legitimate pet bag? These are the tough calls subway staffers make on a daily basis, as the New York Times documents.  

Welcome to The Fungus Olympics: Where the competitors are fungi, the stadium is a petri dish, and performance enhancing substances are encouraged.   Fungal teams receive microscopic mazes by mail and subject their fungal athletes to tests judging their speed, agility, and “…

How do I hate meetings? Let me count the ways.

For non-runners, a marathon may seem the most masochistic of activities. But just think how hard it must be for Big Ben, London’s iconic—and very tall, very rectangular clock tower. But he did it anyway.

Long confined to middle school classrooms, competitive diorama making has taken its rightful place as an Internet phenom. Its pinnacle: First prize in The Open Notebook’s science-themed Peeps diorama contest, giving the sugary bunnies a higher purpose than empty calories.

Imagine wearing a shoe with straps so thin they could fit between your teeth. So-called “floss heels” are all the rage this spring, and podiatrists are panicking. To the High Heel Doctor, the naked-foot minimalism is a mere euphemism for dangerously unsupportive footwear.…

Great news for Skrillex fans: Dubstep music is a real buzzkill when it comes to the survival behaviors of mosquitoes.

Everything went fine for a while as well-wishers lined up in Loreto, Italy on Monday to say hi to Pope Francis.