Come See the Earth Turn: How Foucault’s Pendulum Proved Our Planet Spins
On February 2, 1851, a handful of Paris scientists received one of the strangest invitations in the history of science.
The Bone Wars: How a Bitter Feud Dug Up America’s Dinosaurs
How two feuding 19th-century scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, bribed, spied and raced to fill America with dinosaurs.
Best Space Heaters (2026): Six Picks Compared, From $21 to $160
A space heater is the cheapest way to fix one cold room: the home office over the garage, a drafty
Clocking a Sunbeam: The 300-Year Race to Measure the Speed of Light
A late moon of Jupiter, a toothed wheel, a mirror spinning 528 times a second and a mile of pipe: the 300-year race to measure the speed of light.
The Glass Beehive That Saved Ships: How Augustin Fresnel Reinvented the Lighthouse
A sickly French road engineer cut away the glass a lens doesn’t need and made lighthouses shine to the horizon. His idea still lights stages, cars and VR headsets.
Seventeen Feet Higher: How Galveston Raised Itself After the Deadliest Storm in U.S. History
The deadliest disaster in U.S. history wiped out Galveston in one night in 1900. Then the city built a seawall and jacked itself up as much as 17 feet.
Puzzle of the Day: What Does the Sun, Leaf and Raindrop Column Add Up To?
Three shapes, three row totals. What does the left column add up to?
This Week on Aglena: Oct. 12–18, 2026
This week on Aglena: the Great Moon Hoax, a Soviet bug with no battery, H-bombs on Greenland’s sea ice, a record El Niño, and more.
Best Digital Picture Frames (2026): Six Gift-Ready Picks Compared, From $60 to $299
Six digital picture frames compared for 2026, from a $60 Frameo to Aura’s 15-inch Walden: the Aura Carver, Aspen and Walden, Skylight Frame 2, and 10.1- and 15.6-inch Frameo frames.
Man-Bats on the Moon: How the Great Moon Hoax of 1835 Fooled New York
In 1835 the New York Sun reported that John Herschel had seen bat-winged people on the Moon. The story behind the Great Moon Hoax, and the optics that rule it out.
Four H-Bombs on the Sea Ice: How a B-52 Fire Exposed Greenland’s Nuclear Secret
A B-52 on a secret radar-watching mission caught fire over Greenland in 1968 and crashed with four H-bombs. What followed: a cleanup in the polar night, a hunt for a lost bomb core and a scandal in Denmark.
A Record El Niño Is Building in the Pacific. Here’s What It Could Mean for Winter in the U.S.
A record-strength El Niño is building in the Pacific. What NOAA’s forecasts say it could bring to the U.S. this winter, from Southern storms to a mild North.
The City Under the Ice: How a Secret Cold War Base Ended Up Rewriting Greenland’s Past
A nuclear-powered Army town carved into the Greenland ice, a secret missile plan, and a few jars of forgotten mud that rewrote the history of the ice sheet.
The Wobbling Plate Behind a Nobel Prize, and Why Feynman Got It Backward
A plate tossed in a Cornell cafeteria, a Nobel Prize, a famous mistake, and the same equation that makes the whole Earth wobble.
Puzzle of the Day: What Does the Triangle Weigh on the Hanging Mobile?
A level hanging mobile, two marked weights, two mystery shapes. What does the triangle weigh?
Best Stand Mixers (2026): Six Picks Compared, From a $63 Mini to KitchenAid and Bosch
Six stand mixers compared for 2026, from a compact mini to bread-kneading power: the KitchenAid Artisan and Classic, Cuisinart SM-50, Aucma 6.5-quart, Kitchen in the Box 3.2-quart, and Bosch Universal Plus.
The Gift That Listened: How a Soviet Bug With No Battery Spied on America’s Ambassador
A carved Great Seal hung in the U.S. ambassador’s Moscow residence for seven years with a passive bug inside. How Leon Theremin’s “Thing” worked, how it was found, and how it led to RFID.
The Compass Einstein Helped Build: How a Spinning Wheel Finds True North
A spinning wheel, gravity and the turning Earth: how the gyrocompass finds true north, and how a patent fight made Einstein its co-inventor.
The City That Jacked Itself Up: How Chicago Lifted Its Buildings Out of the Mud
To build America’s first comprehensive sewer system, 1850s Chicago raised its streets several feet and then jacked up its buildings to match, hotels, shops and half a city block, often with people still inside.
The Nut That Flipped in Orbit: The Dzhanibekov Effect and the Tennis Racket Theorem
A flipping nut on Salyut 7, a tumbling Explorer 1 and a tossed tennis racket all obey the same rule: of the three ways to spin a solid object, the middle one is unstable.
Puzzle of the Day: What Color Roof Does the Dog Live Under?
Three cottages on Maple Lane hide one unique arrangement of roofs, pets, and flowers. Six clues. One question: what color roof does the dog live under?