Part of the fun of eating almonds or pecans is cracking the shell and getting the nut. However, some nuts, like cashews, are almost always sold shelled and roasted. Why aren't cashews sold in the shell? Learn more on this Moment of Science.

With war about to be declared in 1939, TV screens went blank after a Mickey Mouse cartoon. When programmes resumed 60 years ago today, the UK was soon changed for ever.

Sergeant Stubby (c1916–1926) was an American dog who served as the mascot of America’s 102nd Infantry Regiment during the First World War. Found in Connecticut in 1917 by members of the infantry, Stubby was stowed away on a ship to France by a young soldier…

Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen (Hebrew: .mw-parser-output .noscript-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .noscript-Hebr{font-size:1.15em;font-family:"Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey David CLM","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Keter YG"…

Lugol's iodine, also known as aqueous iodine and strong iodine solution, is a solution of potassium iodide with iodine in water. It is a medication and disinfectant used for a number of purposes. Taken by mouth it is used to treat thyrotoxicosis until surgery…

Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT, PC (/ˈhjuːm/ (listen); 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964. He was the last…

259 votes and 43 comments so far on Reddit

Merlin (Welsh: Myrddin) is a legendary figure best known as an enchanter or wizard featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c.…

Arminius (German: Hermann; 18/17 BC – AD 21) was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe who commanded an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, in which three Roman legions were destroyed.
His victory at Teutoburg Forest…

During World War II, STEINWAY AND SONS produced specially-built pianos for the American troops. Called the Victory Vertical or G.I. Steinways, the pianos were sometimes airdropped onto battlefields to provide a bit of relaxation...

Priests survived because they were taller than their animal sacrifices

Ossip Samoilovich Bernstein was a Ukrainian-born chess player who went on to become a master in the most memorable of ways. He was born in 1882 to a wealthy Jewish family. He started playing chess at the age of nineteen while he was simultaneously studying…

In a reference so obscure only the most determined fan would find it, Game of Thrones' in-house linguist translated insults from Monty Python into the show's Low Valyrian language

Panda diplomacy is China's use of giant pandas as diplomatic gifts to other countries. The practice existed as far back as the Tang dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian (625–705) sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor.

A new scientific study has reached the conclusion that the fresh water found in Puerto Williams town in southern Chile's Magallanes region is the purest in ...

The Letter of Last Resort is a handwritten letter from the Prime Minister to the commanding officer of each of Trident's submarines...

Major bovine linguistic breakthrough

"What a stupid question!" I bet this is the natural reaction of many readers once they see the noscript of this article. Indeed it is a dream of any chess fan to play like Magnus Carlsen. OK, let me rephrase the original question: Should we play our openings…

LONDON (Reuters) - Up to 70 percent of British men and half of all Western European men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, geneticists in Switzerland said.