off-beat

The turkey vulture’s keen sense of smell was put to use by oil company engineers in 1930s California. Workers were having trouble with leaks along a 42-mile-long natural gas pipeline but noticed that vultures would often congregate around these leaks. The engineers used this to their advantage, observing the vultures to pinpoint and repair leaks.

As a physical piece of a person that would outlast their human life, a lock of hair symbolised immortal love. Locks of hair were generally gifted by women to men and sometimes at the request of their male suitors. These could be rubbed, stroked, sniffed and gazed upon as the recipient thought about the person who had sent it.

In a study that tracked romantic couples over a year, relationships were about 2.5 times more likely to end during the two weeks surrounding Valentine’s Day than during the fall or spring.

The story of the Green River shows that processes deep within the Earth can have profound impacts for life on the surface.

Female genital mutilation is not tradition; it is violence. Southeast Asia has the tools to act, but action must come with urgency. A coordinated regional strategy, backed by strong legislation, accountability, and support for survivors, will be key to ending FGM/C and protecting future generations.

Claims that de-extinction can reverse extinction are misleading. Genetic engineering can introduce lost traits from an extinct species into a closely related living species and restore lost ecological functions, but it can’t re-create the extinct species. Problems arise when companies present these limits cautiously within the scientific community but make stronger claims in public-facing communication.

Slowly but significantly, the ever-growing population of singles is reshaping the world.

A new story reveals a surprising disconnect: the language used to taste and talk about wine does not travel across cultures as smoothly as the industry assumes. This matters for the wine industry, because wine descriptions directly influence purchasing decisions and overall enjoyment.

Shark teeth are also disposable—they are constantly replaced throughout their lives, like a conveyor belt pushing a new tooth forward roughly every few weeks.

Dark matter exerts gravity, just like ordinary matter, and can hold together galaxies, which the map reaffirms with a new level of clarity

A new study demonstrates the stones did not arrive through natural ice movement.

Once silenced by the Islamic Republic, Googoosh now voluntarily withholds her voice in solidarity. The 75-year-old Iranian megastar’s refusal to sing is not a sign of hesitation but a conscious political gesture—one that draws its force from her singular position in Iran’s cultural history. Many see this refusal as a reclamation of her agency; with Iran again roiled by mass mobilisation and protest, her silence resonates as loudly as her songs once did.