Odd Science from History
Solar storms that ran telegraphs, a man who lived with an iron rod through his skull, a sky that rained meat. Strange true moments from the history of science and medicine.
The Dancing Plague of 1518 (July 14, 1518)
Deep dive into the 1518 Dancing Plague of Strasbourg: what chroniclers recorded, how the city responded, whether anyone died, and the best modern explanation. Read the full story
Tarrare, the Man Who Ate Everything (c. 1798)
Tarrare, a French showman and soldier of the 1790s, could not stop eating. Army surgeons studied him, tried to use him as a spy, and finally recorded his death. His story is one of the strangest in medical history. Read the full story
The Stork With an African Arrow (1822)
In 1822 a stork turned up in northern Germany with an African arrow through its neck. It helped prove that birds migrate. Read the full story
Phineas Gage and the Iron Rod (September 13, 1848)
In 1848 an iron tamping rod shot through the head of Vermont railroad foreman Phineas Gage. He survived, but friends said he was 'no longer Gage', and his case became the most famous in brain science. Read the full story
The Carrington Event (September 1, 1859)
In September 1859 Richard Carrington saw a white-light solar flare. Hours later the strongest geomagnetic storm on record lit auroras near the tropics and ran telegraphs on auroral current alone. Read the full story
The Kentucky Meat Shower (March 3, 1876)
On the morning of 3 March 1876, near Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky, a farmer's wife named Mrs. Read the full story
The Horse That Proved Hooves Leave the Ground (June 19, 1878)
Did a galloping horse ever have all four hooves off the ground at once? The human eye could not tell. Read the full story
The Loudest Sound in History (August 27, 1883)
On 27 August 1883 the volcanic island of Krakatoa, between Java and Sumatra, blew itself apart. Read the full story
Blowing the Gamboa Dike (October 10, 1913)
On 10 October 1913 President Woodrow Wilson pressed a key in the White House and set off a dynamite blast in Panama that destroyed the Gamboa dike, the last barrier in the Panama Canal. Read the full story
The Radium Girls (1917)
Young women painting glow-in-the-dark watch dials were told to shape their brushes with their lips. The radium they swallowed destroyed their bones, and their lawsuits helped change US worker safety law. Read the full story
The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic (January 30, 1962)
In January 1962 three girls at a boarding school in Kashasha, Tanganyika, began laughing and crying uncontrollably. The 'laughter epidemic' spread to villages and closed schools. Doctors concluded it was mass psychogenic illness. Read the full story
The CIA's Spy Cat (1967)
In the 1960s the CIA tried to turn a live cat into a walking microphone. A 1967 memo called it a 'remarkable scientific achievement', then quietly concluded it would never work. Read the full story
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