Latest Stories

Most recently published stories in FYI.

The Illinois town that got up and left
In the summer of 1993, the southwestern Illinois town of Valmeyer took the brunt of a massive flood when, not once but twice in a month, the swollen Mississippi River topped its levee system. The village was engulfed in up to 16ft (5m) of floodwater that lingered for months, damaging some 90% of buildings.
By Udley4 years ago in FYI
The Caribbean mangrove forest that defied destruction
On a sweltering summer day in 1994, an ancient mangrove forest on Union Island was ripped apart. A foreign investor had started the foundation work for a hotel, marina and golf course in Ashton lagoon on Union Island, one of the 32 Grenadine islands which dot the clear, blue waters of the southern Caribbean Sea.
By Baru Ku4 years ago in FYI
The world's most polluted capital city
The onset of spring brings relief in more ways than one to Delhi. The air is cool and crisp, and with the milder weather come light showers that make the vegetation more lush. Around April, south-westerly winds sweep through the region, and the blanket of acrid smog that covers the city in the autumn and winter months begins to disperse. But it never really goes away.
By Fra Tusha4 years ago in FYI
The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
In the warm air of an early-June morning, Jose Antonio Peña walks along a channel of gushing water in the Sierra Nevada of southern Spain. Traversing the rocky terrain and ducking beneath boughs of pine, he eventually reaches a grassy meadow on his left. The ancient artificial channel, known as an acequia, empties into the meadow, where its water branches into meandering streams that soak into the mountainside.
By Udley4 years ago in FYI
Can gravity batteries solve our energy storage problems?
As it trudges through the dense rainforests of West and Central Africa, the forest elephant creates a maze of green corridors by grazing and trampling on small trees in its path. Standing at 3m (almost 10ft), this gentle giant is smaller than its better-known counterpart, the savannah elephant, and remains an elusive, solitary creature. The forest elephant causes mayhem amid the rainforest's lush vegetation as it strips bark from saplings, digs for roots in the soil and munches on leaves and berries. But this destruction does more good than harm to the forest: it helps forests to store more carbon in their trees and preserves one of the planet's most vital ecosystems.
By Baru Ku4 years ago in FYI
The unseen man-made 'tracks' on the deep ocean floor
At the base of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from land, there are some curious marks on the seafloor that no animal could have made. Some of them look like narrow troughs carved into the pale silt. Others could be claw marks, gouged through the ecosystems of the deep by an undersea monster.
By Fra Tusha4 years ago in FYI
The quest that discovered thousands of new species
It was once a private house, but now the imposing stone structure on Boswall Road, on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh, is part of a palliative care hospice.
By Holy horse4 years ago in FYI
If Planet Nine exists, why has no one seen it?
As we head towards the end of another extraordinary year, BBC Future is taking a look back at some of our favourite stories for our "Best of 2021" collection. Discover more of our picks here.
By Baru Ku4 years ago in FYI
The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make
In late 18th-Century Europe, a new fashion led to an international scandal. In fact, an entire social class was accused of appearing in public naked.
By Fra Tusha4 years ago in FYI
The forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name
n 2011, archaeologists found something unusual in a Roman toilet. The team were excavating the ancient village of Tasgetium (now Eschenz, Switzerland), ruled by a Celtic king who was personally given the land by Julius Caesar. It was built on the banks of the river Rhine, along what was then an important trade route – and as a result, its remains have been steeped in water ever since. What should have rotted away centuries ago was uncovered in a remarkable state of preservation, protected by the lack of oxygen in the boggy conditions.
By Holy horse4 years ago in FYI
Early life on Mars could have died because of climate change
Scientists have warned for decades of the deadly impacts of human-caused climate change on Earth. And according to a new study, Mars may offer an example of the damage that can occur to life itself because of the greenhouse gas effect.
By k eleanor4 years ago in FYI
The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'
It was around 23:00 on 13 April 1699, in a small village in the north of England. Nine-year-old Jane Rowth blinked her eyes open and squinted out into the moody evening shadows. She and her mother had just awoken from a short sleep.
By Udley4 years ago in FYI