Flora And Fauna
August 2026
Every article published in August 2026. 649 articles · Back to full archive
Culture
When Tutankhamun's sealed tomb was opened after more than 3,000 years, a series of deaths helped ignite rumors of an ancient curse — but a century later, researchers have asked whether the legend was anything more than coincidence amplified by newspapers.
Culture
A Tokyo train company issued a public apology in 2017 because one of its trains left early, by twenty seconds. No customer complained and there were no reports that anyone was left behind — but the company thought it warranted saying sorry.
Science
Ötzi the Iceman has been frozen for 5,300 years and kept in a chilled room at minus six for the last thirty. Scientists just checked him over properly and found things living on him — some of which appear to have been there the whole time
Science
Scientists have found a cell that fights infection by detonating. It bursts, kills everything within reach, and five minutes later there is nothing left to show it was ever there
Earth News
The Italians named it Devil's Valley because of the steam pouring straight out of the ground. Turns out the steam was the mild part. A few kilometres below it sits enough molten rock to fill Lake Geneva forty times over
South America
In the driest desert on Earth lies a landscape so hostile it resembles Mars — ancient salt flats, near-lifeless soils, towering volcanoes, and some of the clearest skies on the planet, where scientists search for clues about life beyond Earth.
Climate Science
Wildfire smoke is made of particles large enough to scatter away blue light and let red, orange and yellow pass through, and that same physics turned the sky over an evacuation near Toledo the color of an old photograph
Outer Planets
After twelve years and more than seven billion kilometres, Voyager 2 arrived at Neptune within 100 kilometres of where it had been aimed — a margin NASA compares to sinking a golf putt 3,630 kilometres long
Science
The Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977, crossed into interstellar space in 2012 — but it will still take many thousands of years to exit the Oort Cloud, meaning it has technically left the solar system and is nowhere near leaving the solar system at the same time
Mind & Meaning
Thought of the day from Henry David Thoreau: "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude"
Science
NASA engineers working to extend the Voyager missions cannot physically touch the spacecraft, cannot send a replacement part, and must wait nearly 24 hours for every command to arrive — and another 24 hours for the reply — yet they just bought Voyager 2 at least a year of extra life
Flora And Fauna
South Korea planted more than ten billion trees after the Korean War — and the volume of wood standing on its hills has risen roughly thirtyfold since 1953
Science
Two habitable-zone planets now sit within 11 light-years of Earth: Proxima Centauri b at 4.24 light-years, confirmed years ago, and GJ 887 d at 10.7 light-years, confirmed only in 2026 — both orbiting red dwarfs, and both raising more questions than they answer
Science
ESA's Gaia telescope has mapped a giant wave rippling outward from the Milky Way's centre, pushing stars tens of thousands of light-years out of place — and scientists still don't know what set it in motion
Science