ISSUE 22OCTOBER 2026STARRY NIGHTMONARCH BUTTERFLIESFREDDIE MERCURYJOHN URSCHELROUTE DU RHUMSPORT & STYLE ISSUE 22OCTOBER 2026STARRY NIGHTMONARCH BUTTERFLIESFREDDIE MERCURYJOHN URSCHELROUTE DU RHUMSPORT & STYLE
Photo: a starry night sky with the Milky Way over the hills and trees of Tuscany
Cover · The Story
Issue 22 · October 2026 · treschic.ro

Did Van Gogh’s sky really exist? Astronomers may have found the exact hour behind “The Starry Night”: dawn, 22 July 1889

Vincent van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” in 1889, at 36, in the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and the canvas has long been dated to June. Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, who runs a telescope company in Seoul and is a doctoral candidate in astronomy at Kyung Hee University, rebuilt the skies of those nights with his team. In 2019 the researchers photographed the places in France that Van Gogh painted. The study, published in Scientific Reports, finds that the painting best matches the pre-dawn sky around 22 July 1889: a thin moon above the planet Venus and, at the center, the Hyades star cluster, in the constellation Taurus. “I will bet on this date,” says Kim. The Van Gogh Museum notes, however, that the painter was not after exact likenesses.

Art and astronomy ·4 min read ·October 2026
Sources: AP (via ABC News) · Smithsonian · ScienceAlert · Popular Science
Read more
Photo: a dark blue sky filled with countless bright stars
Science · Astronomy
The first truly green star in our galaxy, as far as astronomers know: a white dwarf that swallowed rocks
WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf about 280 light-years away, has swallowed sodium-rich rocky material from its own planetary system. The sodium absorbs the orange part of its light, and what remains looks green. Mark Hollands’s team at the University of Warwick used spectra to calculate the colors of more than 150 nearby white dwarfs. The study appeared in October in RAS Techniques and Instruments.
3 min · Sources: University of Warwick · Sky & Telescope · Smithsonian
Photo: experimental physics apparatus, the CMS detector at CERN, Cessy, France
Science · Physics
A single positron, held captive for months: physicists will be able to compare antimatter with matter up close
The positron is the antimatter partner of the electron. At Northwestern University, Gerald Gabrielse’s team, with PhD student Thomas Myers, caught a single one, emitted by radioactive sodium-22, and held it for months in a trap cooled to 0.3 degrees above absolute zero, tracking its quantum jumps with microwaves. The goal: to compare its magnetism with the electron’s. The results were published on 21 October in Physical Review Letters.
3 min · Sources: Smithsonian · ScienceAlert · Interesting Engineering
Photo: a Triceratops fossil at London's Natural History Museum
Science · Paleontology
Locked horns: the skulls of horned dinosaurs may have evolved for different fighting styles
Paleontologists at the University of Bristol, led by Eric Ames, built 3D models of the skulls of five ceratopsian dinosaurs and simulated the forces of a fight. Centrosaurus seems to have been a specialized stabber: its skull withstood vertical blows, but not sideways ones. Triceratops and Spiclypeus coped well with locked horns and shoving, a sign that they fought in several ways. The paper was published in September in PeerJ.
3 min · Sources: Science News · University of Bristol · CiteDrive (PeerJ record)

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Issue 22 · This Month’s Stories

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Photo: bleached white corals on a reef in Indonesia
Science · Oceans
A coral that tipped over in a tank led to a discovery: in the lab, bleached corals recovered by touching a healthy clone
In 2025, in a Stanford University lab, professor Steve Palumbi noticed that a healthy coral had fallen against a bleached fragment from the same colony, and where they touched, the color was coming back. PhD student Danny Collins, who was already studying how microbes can get into corals through contact, turned the accident into an experiment with ten pairs of fragments. All five bleached fragments pressed against healthy clones fully recovered in about seven weeks, thanks to algae that moved into them, while the fragments kept a few millimeters apart did not recover. The research was published in October in Science Advances. The method is not yet ready for reefs in the ocean.
3 min
Sources: KQED · Euronews · Smithsonian
Photo: a black twin-bell alarm clock
Science · Brain
The body clock and depression: nearly one in four patients may have a form tied to the circadian rhythm
Researchers at the University of Sydney analyzed clinical and genetic data from more than 11,000 Australians with severe or recurrent depression. Of these, 2,604, nearly a quarter, showed the signs of what the team calls circadian depression: severe tiredness in the morning, longer sleep during difficult periods, a seasonal pattern and “night owl” habits. In these patients the illness starts earlier, and common antidepressants help less. The team, which includes Emiliana Tonini and Jacob Crouse, suggests light therapy and melatonin for them. The study appeared on 21 October in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and independent experts say the subtype still needs confirmation.
3 min
Sources: University of Sydney · ScienceAlert · Smithsonian · Live Science
Photo: a brown snake crawling through the leaves of a forest
Science · Nature
Snakes that flee by cartwheeling: small reptiles from Malaysia roll four times faster than they slither
The story began in August 2019, when a small snake, startled on a road in Malaysia, rolled away like a wheel. Ecologist Yosuke Kojima’s team at Toho University in Japan then filmed 13 snakes of the genus Pseudorabdion, collected in Kubah National Park, on a racetrack fitted with cameras. All of them rolled, at speeds of 1.7 to 3.7 meters per second, about four times faster than when they slither, and kept their heads almost still. The six related Calamaria snakes, tested for comparison, did not. The findings were described on 19 October in Current Biology.
3 min
Sources: Science News · Smithsonian · Popular Science

The Deep Dive

The great monarch migration, now tracked with solar tags weighing a few milligrams
Deep Dive · Nature
2,300 kilometers in 40 days, carrying a 0.06-gram tag: how scientists are following monarch butterflies all the way to Mexico
Every autumn, the monarch butterflies of eastern North America fly to the mountains of central Mexico, where they spend the winter in oyamel fir forests. The journey is made by a “super generation”: these butterflies live up to eight months, about eight times longer than their parents, and cover around 4,800 kilometers. This year, hundreds of them carry 0.06-gram solar tags on their backs, whose signals are picked up by phones and antennas. One of the 29 butterflies tagged by the zoo in Winnipeg, Canada, reached Mexico after about 2,300 kilometers and 40 days. Most are expected at the wintering sites in early November, after the area occupied by the colonies grew by 64% last winter.
60 milligrams and two solar panels
The BlūMorpho tags, made by Cellular Tracking Technologies, have no battery. They broadcast a signal on the 2.4 GHz band that Bluetooth also uses, picked up by phones within about 100 meters.
Sources: Electronic Design · Global News · NPR (via WWNO)
Eight months of life, not a few weeks
The summer generations live only a few weeks. The butterflies that fly to Mexico in autumn can live around eight months and cover about 80 kilometers a day.
Sources: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Iowa State University
Up to a billion butterflies
The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, about 100 kilometers northwest of Mexico City, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008. Up to a billion butterflies return here every year.
Sources: UNESCO · Monarch Joint Venture

Fashion · The List

Freddie Mercury’s crown, the dolls that carried fashion across Europe, and Celia Birtwell’s prints
Details →
Photo: gold crown studded with purple gemstones
Fashion · V&A
A crown, a cloak and a winged catsuit: Freddie Mercury’s stage outfits on a free trail through the V&A galleries
At the V&A South Kensington, in London, the free trail “Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things” opened on 24 October and runs until 17 January 2027, in the year the artist would have turned 80. Eight outfits from the 1970s and 1980s are spread across six stops in the museum’s galleries. Seven are lent by Mary Austin, the singer’s former fiancée and friend, who developed the trail with the museum. On show are the black-and-white outfit from the cover of Queen’s first album (1973), the “Mercury Wing” catsuit created by Wendy de Smet, and the crown and cloak designed by Diana Moseley for the 1986 Magic Tour. The installations are by stage designer Tom Piper.
3 min
Sources: blooloop · designboom · Attitude
Photo: two antique dolls in ornate period dresses
Fashion · The Museum at FIT
Long before magazines, dolls carried fashion across Europe: the Museum at FIT in New York shows how they came to inspire designers
At the Museum at FIT in New York, the exhibition “Doll Dressing” stays open until 3 January 2027, with more than 170 objects gathered by curator Colleen Hill: fashion dolls, full-size garments, accessories and artworks. From the 14th century, dressed dolls traveled around Europe as miniature models of the latest trends; the show includes an 18th-century doll lent by Colonial Williamsburg, used to bring designs to dressmakers. Then the roles were reversed: Martin Margiela enlarged doll clothes to human scale in 1994, and Jeremy Scott made paper-doll skirts for Moschino.
3 min
Sources: FashionUnited · Sleek · The Museum at FIT
Photo: white fabric with a pink floral print
Fashion · Fashion and Textile Museum
His cut, her prints: Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, the couple who dressed 1960s London, in more than 120 pieces
London’s Fashion and Textile Museum is devoting an exhibition, until April 2027, to Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, his wife and collaborator, the couple who dominated London fashion from 1965 to 1974. He mastered pattern cutting and the bias cut; she drew prints of flowers and plants inspired by the Ballets Russes and Art Deco. There are more than 120 garments from a private collection, alongside pieces lent by Birtwell. Among them: the 1967 “Bakst” dress, the mail-order paper dress, the 1968 “Lamborghini” jacket and the “Ophelia” dress, which combines two of her prints. At the heart of their partnership was Quorum, a boutique in West London.
3 min
Sources: Fashion and Textile Museum · FashionUnited · Couture Notebook · Art Fund
THE LIST 4 ideas from the London runways for spring-summer 2027
01
Art Deco fringe
At Roksanda and Ahluwalia, fringe recalled the 1920s rather than the Wild West. The everyday version: a fringed scarf in silk or velvet.
02
Straps that slip
Simone Rocha, KNWLS and Dreaming Eli let straps fall off the shoulder for a relaxed, just-out-of-bed look. For daytime: a top slipped slightly off one shoulder.
03
The pencil skirt returns
At Christopher Kane’s Mulberry debut, the pencil skirt came back in modern suits. Easiest to copy: a plain T-shirt tucked into a pencil skirt, an image Kane remembers from his youth.
04
Tulle, for daytime too
Simone Rocha, Richard Quinn and Bora Aksu used tulle generously, from full ball skirts to underlayers. For an everyday wardrobe: a tulle layer worn under a printed dress.
Sources: Coveteur · Who What Wear · The Zoe Report · AnOther
FASHION HISTORY The zipper, from rubber boots to couture dresses
Fashion History · Gideon Sundback
Twenty years of flops and a name coined for rubber boots: how the zipper went from an odd idea to the clothes we wear
In 1893, American Whitcomb Judson presented his “clasp locker” at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago: a fastener of hooks and eyes with a sliding clasp, intended for shoes. It never caught on. Swedish-born Gideon Sundback, an electrical engineer trained in Germany who reached America in 1905, replaced the hooks with interlocking teeth: his “Hookless No. 2,” perfected in 1913, is considered the first modern zipper. According to The Christian Science Monitor, a factory could make more than 1,500 fasteners a day, but hardly anyone wanted them. In 1923 the B.F. Goodrich company put them on rubber overshoes and gave them the name “zipper.” In clothing, the zipper only took hold in the 1930s, almost four decades after Chicago.
Swedish, American and Canadian
Sundback described himself as Swedish by birth, American by adoption and Canadian by preference. He ran a zipper factory in St. Catharines, Ontario, and his “S-1” machine halved costs within a year.
Source: Ingenium
The zipper town
Meadville, Pennsylvania, was once America’s zipper capital. The Hookless Fastener Company became Talon in 1937, and a 1994 review noted that the local radio station’s call letters, WZPR, still recalled that era.
Sources: Kirkus Reviews · Courtauld · London Review of Books
The coat that started a craze
In August 1937, in Paris, Edward Molyneux showed a coat with a full-length zipper, said to have started the vogue for zippers on coats and dresses. In November, LIFE magazine ran the headline “Now Everything’s Zippers.”
Source: Courtauld
THE LIST · more of the zipper story
Photo: a zipper, in black and white
Fashion History · Charles James
A dress you could supposedly change into in a taxi: Charles James’s “Taxi,” with a zipper spiraling around the body
Charles James, an American couturier born in Britain, conceived a spiral dress in 1929 and considered it one of his most important creations. According to Encyclopedia.com and researchers at the Courtauld, a long zipper, covered by a visible placket, spiraled around the body. It was said, notes the Metropolitan Museum, that you could change into it on the back seat of a taxi. It was hard to make, though: one side of the bodice and the wrap skirt were cut without seams. It was the first dress sold in a department store’s accessories section, next to sweaters, in sealed cellophane packages: at Best & Co., in 1933 and 1934, it cost $22, in two sizes.
3 min
Sources: The Met (collection) · Courtauld · Encyclopedia.com · The Met (article)
Photo: metal zipper on blue and brown fabric
Fashion History · Riri
Convex and concave: how a St. Gallen lawyer bought the European rights to the zipper and created the Swiss brand Riri
According to Riri, in 1924 Gideon Sundback came to St. Gallen, and Swiss lawyer and entrepreneur Martin Othmar Winterhalter bought the European rights to the patent; swissinfo dates the start to 1923. Winterhalter designed a new system of interlocking concave and convex elements and developed industrial production. The name comes from German: “Rippe” and “Rille,” convex and concave, hence the formula Rippe + Rille = Riri. In 1936 the company settled in Mendrisio, in Ticino, where it is still based, on the site of a former pasta factory, notes swissinfo. In 2003 the Swiss team Alinghi won the America’s Cup wearing clothing fitted with the brand’s Storm zippers.
3 min
Sources: Riri (history) · swissinfo · Riri
Photo: colourful zips arranged in a row
Fashion History · YKK
Why so many zippers say YKK: the company started in Tokyo in 1934 that now makes roughly half of the world’s zippers
The three letters on the pull of so many zippers come from Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha, meaning Yoshida Manufacturing Corporation. Tadao Yoshida founded it in January 1934, as San-es Shokai, in Nihonbashi, Tokyo; according to Carryology, he was 31 and had no engineering training. The firm made its own wire, woven tape and sliders to control the whole production process. Mental Floss and Carryology estimate that YKK makes roughly half of the world’s zippers, more than seven billion a year. In 2014, Marketplace reported that its factory in Macon, Georgia, made about five million zippers a day, in 9,500 colors, including 20 shades of black.
3 min
Sources: YKK Americas (history) · Marketplace · Carryology · Mental Floss

On Air · TV, Radio & Screen

A Netflix documentary about “SCTV,” the Canadian show that launched a generation of comedians
On Air · Documentary
A made-up TV station in an imaginary town: “SCTV,” the show that launched Eugene Levy and Martin Short, gets a Netflix documentary
The documentary “SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of” is on Netflix from 30 October. It is directed by Jason Hehir, who made “The Last Dance,” and Jimmy Kimmel is among the executive producers. The film tells the story of the sketch show “Second City Television,” started in 1976 by members of the Second City improv troupe in Toronto and broadcast until 1984. Everything took place at a poor, imaginary TV station in the small town of Melonville, with parodies of commercials, shows and trailers. From here, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis and Martin Short went on to fame. The film features interviews, rare archive material and an emotional reunion in Toronto.
All six seasons on Netflix
Ahead of the documentary, Netflix added all six seasons of the show in September, available in the US, the UK and most other regions.
Sources: What's on Netflix · Time Out
The brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie
Among the show’s characters were the brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas in the improvised segment “Great White North.”
Sources: Museum of Broadcast Communications · Film Threat
Two Emmy Awards for writing
On NBC, where in 1981 it became “SCTV Network 90,” a 90-minute version, the show won two Emmy Awards for writing, in 1982 and 1983.
Sources: Saturday Evening Post · Museum of Broadcast Communications · Film Threat
Apple TV
“Small Prophets,” with Michael Palin
Mackenzie Crook’s comedy, a BBC hit, has new episodes on Apple TV every Wednesday until 4 November. Michael Palin plays a father with an old alchemical recipe. Sources: 9to5Mac · MacTech
PBS
“Tiger Island,” two tiger mothers in Nepal
The two-part “Nature” miniseries follows two tigresses raising their cubs on an island in western Nepal, filmed with drones and thermal cameras. Online in the US until 18 November. Sources: PBS · KPBS
PBS
How the Statue of Liberty was raised
“Secrets of the Dead: Raising Lady Liberty” uses unseen documents to show how France and the US worked together. The statue was dedicated on 28 October 1886. Online in the US until 18 November. Sources: PBS · KPBS · Connecticut Public · FOX 5 DC
Paramount+
“Avatar: Seven Havens,” the new Avatar
The animated series from Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko has 13 episodes, all available from the end of October. Paramount+ has already announced seasons 3 and 4. Sources: TheWrap · Dark Horizons · Inverse

TRESCHIC Sections

11 voices, one universe
Photo: a system of equations written in chalk on a blackboard
People · Science
From American football to MIT: former NFL player John Urschel announces a solution to a 31-year-old math problem
John Urschel played on the offensive line for the Baltimore Ravens from 2014 until 2017, when he left the NFL for mathematics. He earned his doctorate at MIT, where today, at 35, he is a professor. In early October he posted, as a preprint, a study on Gaussian elimination, the classic method computers use to solve systems of equations. It shows that for random matrices with partial pivoting, the so-called growth factor rarely exceeds the square root of the matrix size by much. It answers a conjecture stated in 1995 by Nick Trefethen, who had offered 1,000 dollars for a resolution. In the paper, Urschel notes that he also used artificial intelligence models.
3 min · Profile
Sources: arXiv · theGrio · Newser
Photo: Carpathian mountain ridges in Slovakia with a winding path, in warm sunset light
People · Romania
From a torn tendon to the mountains: Mădălina Florea of Sighișoara wins the Golden Trail World Series for a second year running
Mădălina Florea was born in Sighișoara and grew up in track athletics. In 2018, during a training session at the town's stadium, she ruptured her Achilles tendon, and after surgery she chose mountain running. This year she won three races in the Golden Trail World Series, the world circuit of mountain running: in Canada, in Austria and at Sierre-Zinal, in Switzerland. On 24 October, at the final in Muju, South Korea, over 28.6 kilometers and 2,313 meters of climbing on wet ground, she finished second and kept her title, with 1,164 points, ahead of two runners from Kenya. “It’s the hardest race I’ve ever done,” said the CSM Sighișoara champion.
3 min · Profile
Sources: Golden Trail Series · Ziare.com · PressOne
Photo: close-up of a bicycle's chain, gears and pedal
People · Invention
A prosthetic leg made of more than 95% bicycle parts: Ben Hogan is giving his invention away free to the whole world
Ben Hogan repaired bikes as a student at Michigan State University, and today he is a prosthetist at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Michigan. His prosthesis, Project Bike Leg, is more than 95% bicycle parts: the foot is made from a saddle and strips of tire held together with spokes, the frame and seat post give it stability, two chains hold the knee, and a gear cable ties it all together. The socket is wicker, easy to weave locally. In developing countries, nine in ten people who need a prosthetic leg have none, and the one worn by an American tester cost nearly 70,000 dollars. In nine days in Ghana, he trained people to build them. He wants no patent: the instructions are free, online.
3 min · Profile
Sources: InvestigateTV · People (Yahoo) · WILX
Photo: a violin resting on sheet music
01
Treschic Events · Romania
Under Wagner’s spell: the 21st SoNoRo festival, with 18 chamber concerts in Bucharest and Cluj, until 15 November
The SoNoRo festival, founded in 2006 by the violist Răzvan Popovici, reaches its 21st edition with the theme “The Infinite Melody,” inspired by Richard Wagner. The program has 18 concerts and two talks, from the end of October until 15 November, first in Bucharest, then in Cluj-Napoca. The opening, “Lord of the Strings,” takes place in the Royal Dining Room of the National Museum of Art, with works by Wagner, Chausson, Mozart and Walton, played by Mi-Sa Yang, Erik Schumann, Răzvan Popovici, Justus Grimm and the pianist Diana Ketler, the artistic director. Evenings follow at the Romanian Athenaeum, the Bragadiru Palace and, for the first time, the Anglican Church. School and university students and retirees get a 50% discount. Sources: Zile și Nopți · Romania Insider · Eventbook (ticketing)
Photo: a Soyuz rocket launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
02
Treschic Events · Romania
The newspaper that announced Gagarin’s flight and objects that flew in space: in Arad, 45 years since Prunariu’s mission
The Arad Museum Complex has opened an exhibition at the Palace of Culture marking 45 years since the flight of Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, the first Romanian in space, who lifted off on 14 May 1981 aboard Soyuz 40. The pieces come from the collection of Alec Bartos, from Cluj, an artist, designer of space-themed postage stamps and astrophilately specialist. Visitors can see a special edition of the newspaper “Informația Bucureștiului” from 12 April 1961, reporting Gagarin’s flight, the original film sent in 1969 to the US Embassy in Romania to promote the Apollo 11 mission, medals, mission emblems and objects that flew in space. The exhibition stays open until 31 December, Tuesday to Sunday. Sources: Zile și Nopți · Actual de Cluj · Mediafax
Photo: a street decorated with hanging lights at night
03
Treschic Events · Abroad
Turin lights up for winter: Luci d’Artista brings 31 light installations to its streets and squares, until 10 January
Luci d’Artista, the project that has been turning Turin into an open-air art gallery for nearly 30 years, has reached its 29th edition, titled “Memories and Future Dreams,” with 31 light installations switched on until 10 January. The curator Antonio Grulli has added four new works. The American artist Tony Oursler has created “Star(life),” on the facade of the Politecnico di Torino, his first permanent public work in Italy, while Samson Young presents “Inversions” at OGR. The CANEMORTO group created “The Radiant Van,” a lit-up van that moves around the city. Older pieces also remain, such as Mario Merz’s numbers on the Mole Antonelliana. The edition is produced by Fondazione Torino Musei. Sources: Inside Art · Torino Free · TPNews · Finestre sull'Arte
Photo: an old film projector on a table
04
Treschic Events · Abroad
Ten days of cinema in the heart of Tokyo: the international film festival, at its 39th edition, with a Kenji Mizoguchi retrospective
The Tokyo International Film Festival, one of the largest in Asia, holds its 39th edition from late October until 4 November, in the Hibiya, Yurakucho and Marunouchi area. The opening film is the music drama “Sukiyaki,” directed by Zeze Takahisa. In the main competition, 15 films compete for the Tokyo Grand Prix, among them Lisandro Alonso’s “Double Freedom” and Qiu Jiongjiong’s “Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting.” Classics such as “Ugetsu” and “Sansho the Bailiff” return in the retrospective devoted to Kenji Mizoguchi, while another celebrates the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. According to Time Out, last year’s edition drew more than 160,000 attendees and screened 184 films. Sources: Time Out Tokyo · The Film Stage · Outlook India
Photo: a vintage chair and a table in a dark room, in winter sunlight
01
Culture · Amsterdam
Whistler’s Mother comes to Amsterdam: the Van Gogh Museum hosts the painter’s largest European retrospective in 30 years
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is hosting “Whistler. Dandy and Disruptor” until 10 January 2027, the first retrospective of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) in the Netherlands and the largest in Europe in 30 years. There are around 100 works, including the famous portrait of the artist’s mother, “Arrangement in Grey and Black.” The exhibition, organized with Tate Britain, also recalls the libel case Whistler won against the critic John Ruskin, who had accused him of “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Van Gogh admired him and mentioned his prints in his letters. In The Hague, the Mesdag Collection is running a parallel show on the painter’s ties to the Netherlands. Sources: Van Gogh Museum · Artprice · Finestre sull’Arte · Artdependence
Photo: snow-capped Mount Fuji seen across the water of Lake Kawaguchi
02
Culture · London
All 46 prints together for the first time in the UK: Hokusai and Mount Fuji at Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is showing Katsushika Hokusai’s complete “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” until 17 January 2027: 46 prints, the original 36 plus ten added after the series proved a success. It is the first time UK audiences can see the complete set, lent by the Iuchi Collection, on deposit at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. Hokusai made the series between 1830 and 1833, in his seventies, using Prussian blue, a pigment that was new at the time. Three well-preserved impressions of “The Great Wave” hang side by side for comparison, and a rare blue variant of “Red Fuji” is on view in the UK for the first time. Tickets start at 21.50 pounds. Sources: Dulwich Picture Gallery · Time Out · IanVisits
Photo: the illuminated skyline of Shanghai on the Huangpu River at night
03
Culture · Architecture
A white spiral roof inspired by the Chinese fan: Shanghai’s new Grand Opera House has 4,200 seats in three halls
On the banks of the Huangpu River, the Shanghai Grand Opera House, designed by the Norwegian firm Snøhetta, opened its doors on 17 October. The 146,786-square-meter building has three halls with 4,200 seats in all: the 2,000-seat Harmony Hall, the 1,200-seat Soar Theatre and the 1,000-seat Open Stage, with an adaptable stage and seating. The white spiral roof draws on the geometry of the traditional Chinese fan and becomes a public staircase rising from the ground to the rooftop terrace, which anyone can reach without a ticket. The first season, until 20 February 2027, has 82 performances of 47 productions, with guests such as Teatro La Fenice and American Ballet Theatre. Sources: ArchDaily · designboom · Snøhetta · Parametric Architecture · Bachtrack · Smithsonian Magazine
Photo: a white brick wall, close up
04
Culture · Design
A facade of 82,000 bricks made from the city’s waste: Design Museum Gent has reopened after four years of work
Design Museum Gent, in Belgium, reopened in early October after four years of renovation and expansion. The new wing, by Carmody Groarke and ATAMA, links the historic buildings, built between the 16th and 20th centuries, into a single route. The facade uses Gent Waste Brick, a brick made from local municipal waste, cured with lime instead of being fired in a kiln. According to the architects, the mix includes crushed concrete, glass and porcelain. More than 82,000 were produced in Ghent itself, at Het Arsenaal, and residents could follow the process live. The courtyard of the Hotel de Coninck has become a garden, and the new display shows around 500 of the museum’s more than 24,000 objects. Sources: Design Museum Gent · designboom · ArchDaily · Travel Tomorrow
Photo: an old open book surrounded by fairy lights and leaves
01
Books · Series finale
The last adventure of Thursday Next, the detective who enters books: Jasper Fforde closes the series with “Dark Reading Matter”
Jasper Fforde has closed the series he began in 2001 with “The Eyre Affair.” “Dark Reading Matter,” the eighth and final novel featuring literary detective Thursday Next, came out in October from Soho Press in the US and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, after a 14-year wait, according to Kirkus. Thursday knows this is her last adventure, and her enemies want to make the book unreadable: the Martians have escaped from “The War of the Worlds,” a gateway to hell has opened at a Shakespeare theme park, and someone wants access to Dark Reading Matter, the realm where deleted books and unrealized ideas end up. Kirkus calls it “pure, joyful silliness.” Sources: Kirkus Reviews · Hachette UK · BookBrowse · Indigo
Photo: a clear light bulb glowing in a dark room
02
Books · Ideas
Why good ideas fall asleep and how they wake up: David Byrne gathers 35 stories, from Bach to dark matter
In October, Penguin Press published musician David Byrne’s “Sleeping Beauties,” a 400-page book about ideas that lay forgotten for years or even centuries before being rediscovered. The title comes from science, where a “sleeping beauty” is an ignored paper that becomes important much later. Byrne gathers 35 short histories: Vera Rubin’s evidence for dark matter, continental drift, the music of Bach and the paintings of Vermeer, revived after one and two centuries respectively, and Roman concrete. Kirkus praises the author’s “wry, entertaining, and informed voice,” and Byrne argues for a curiosity that crosses the borders between disciplines. Sources: Kirkus Reviews · The Marginalian · Open Culture
Photo: an antique typewriter turned into a desk lamp, beside old books on a table
03
Books · Book history
A typewriter, an Orient Express letter and her first short story: the British Library opens up Agatha Christie’s world
From late October until 20 June 2027, the British Library in London presents “Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery,” an exhibition about how the queen of crime fiction worked. Among the objects, many on show for the first time, are her 1937 Remington typewriter, the typescript of her first short story, “The House of Beauty,” written as a teenager, her study notes for a 1917 pharmacy exam and a 1930 letter about her journey on the Orient Express. Visitors walk through recreated settings, from an English country house to a train carriage and an archaeological dig, and can look for hidden clues. A standard ticket costs 20 pounds. Sources: Agatha Christie Ltd · Smithsonian Magazine · IanVisits
Photo: a beige dog asleep on a wooden parquet floor
04
Books · Fiction
A stolen manuscript and a one-eared dog: Julie Orringer returns with “Luna, Phoenix, Queen”
Barr Pennington, a novelist and writing professor, finds an unpublished novel in the study of his wife, Dava, written by hand on yellow legal pads. Dava, a former literature professor, has lost her memory and lives in a care facility. Barr transcribes the pages, adds lines of his own and publishes it all under his name, and the book becomes a bestseller, leaving him feeling like a fraud. Running through the whole story is Luna, a one-eared dog who survived a fire. Julie Orringer’s new novel, published in October by Knopf, has eight linked sections. Kirkus calls it “heart-stoppingly good,” and the Boston Globe says the author is at the top of her game. Sources: Kirkus Reviews · Boston Globe · Simon & Schuster UK · BookBrowse
Photo: white hair strands on black fabric
01
Beauty · Science
Why hair turns gray: stem cells that get stuck, stress and a three-stage model proposed by researchers this autumn
Hair color comes from melanin, and the pigment is renewed at each growth cycle by melanocyte stem cells in the follicle. A review published this autumn in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology proposes a three-stage model: first the mature pigment cells disappear, then the migration of progenitor cells stalls, and finally the stem cell reserve runs out. A 2023 NYU Langone study in Nature showed that, in mice, these cells increasingly get stuck in a part of the follicle where they no longer receive the signals that make them produce pigment. Stress hormones can speed up the process. Color returns only rarely, and the evidence in humans is limited. Sources: Frontiers · NYU Langone · Columbia Neurology
Photo: red lipstick on a black surface
02
Beauty · Lipstick
A “joyful and alive” red on the Paris runway: Victoria Beckham Beauty brings Rouge Victoria, six reds from poppy to deep wine
At Victoria Beckham’s spring-summer 2027 show in Paris, makeup artist Lucia Pica gave the models a red lip, Rouge Victoria in House Red, over understated skin. Pica described it to The Zoe Report as a red that is “joyful and alive.” Hairstylist Anthony Turner worked with Schwarzkopf Professional products. The range has also reached stores: six reds with a demi-matte finish, from Coquelicot, a warm poppy, to Minuit, a deep wine. Among them is Velours, an earthy mahogany red. Victoria Beckham’s own favorite is House Red, which, she tells Wallpaper, reminds her of a glass of Burgundy. Sources: The Zoe Report · Coveteur · Wallpaper
Photo: Paris rooftops and chimneys with lit windows under a cloudy sky
03
Beauty · Fragrance
Between sunset and nightfall, a perfume from 1912: Guerlain reinterprets L'Heure Bleue, the scent inspired by the blue hour
In 1912, Jacques Guerlain created L'Heure Bleue, a perfume about the light seen from the Pont-Neuf at the moment when the sun has set but night has not yet fallen, the blue hour. This year, Delphine Jelk, the house’s director of fragrance creation, signed a new interpretation: an eau de parfum that keeps the iris and vanilla of the original and adds a specially developed tincture of dried Italian iris rhizomes. The bottle keeps the inverted-heart shape drawn by Georges Chevalier for Baccarat in 1912, and the original perfume stays in the house’s Légendaires collection, so the two versions can be tried side by side. Sources: Escentual · V Magazine · LVMH
Photo: a black e-reader beside a white and black mug
01
Tech · E-readers
A Kindle without a raised bezel: Amazon redesigns its whole e-reader range, with a flush screen and books that open faster
On 1 October, Amazon unveiled its new Kindle range: every model now has a screen flush with the frame, without the raised border of the past. So that you don’t turn a page by accident while holding the device, the touchscreen detects where your thumb rests and ignores that area, Amazon vice president Kevin Keith explained. The base 6-inch Kindle weighs 140 grams, has 16 GB of storage, a battery that lasts up to six weeks and opens books 30% faster. It costs $149.99, and its housing is made from recycled materials. The Paperwhite starts at $199.99 and the color-screen Colorsoft at $289.99, both shipping from the end of October. Sources: Amazon · TechCrunch · Gagadget
Photo: a bunch of keys on a wooden table
02
Tech · Accessories
Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag3 works with iPhone for the first time: a third lighter, up to 550 days of battery and $29.99
At the end of September, Samsung announced the Galaxy SmartTag3, the tag that helps you find your keys or luggage. It is the first model in the series that also works with iPhone: in the SmartThings Find app, iOS users can see where the item is, share its location and search for it nearby. Compared with the previous generation, it is about 35% smaller and 33% lighter, and the battery lasts up to 550 days, or up to 790 in power-saving mode. On compatible Galaxy phones, the Compass View feature shows direction and distance from up to 60 meters away, three times farther than before. In the US it costs $29.99 and reaches stores by early November. Sources: Samsung Newsroom · Notebookcheck · 91mobiles
Photo: an open laptop and notebook on a desk beside a lit candle in the evening
03
Tech · Apps
A WhatsApp call without a WhatsApp account: guests join from a browser, free, with no time limit, once the host lets them in
In mid-October, WhatsApp announced that users can invite people who have no account in the app to their calls. The host sends anyone a link created in the Calls tab, and the guest opens it in a computer browser, types a name and waits in a “waiting room” until admitted. Calls can be one-to-one or group calls with up to 32 participants, they are free, have no time limit and remain end-to-end encrypted. Guests can share their screen, react and “raise a hand,” but they cannot see other participants’ phone numbers, send messages or add other people. Integration with Google Calendar and Outlook is due later this year. Sources: WhatsApp · WABetaInfo · The Star
Photo: an iPod and a pair of headphones on a table
04
Tech · Anniversary
A 2001 iPod hidden on an error page: Apple Music marks 25 years since the first iPod, Brick game included
On 23 October 2001, Apple introduced the first iPod: a 5 GB hard drive, about 1,000 songs, up to 10 hours of playback and a price of $399. To mark 25 years, Apple has hidden a virtual version of it on the Apple Music website, without saying how long it will stay there: open a nonexistent address on music.apple.com in a browser, and below the error message an iPod appears with a monochrome screen, a click wheel and the menus of old. No subscription is needed. Songs play only as 30- to 90-second previews, depending on their length. On the About screen, holding the center button for five seconds launches Brick, the game also hidden in the original iPod. Apple discontinued the iPod line for good in May 2022. Sources: Notebookcheck · Engadget · Apple · Digital Trends
Photo: a row of vintage cars from the early decades of the 20th century
01
Auto · Classics
130 years since the “Emancipation Run”: more than 400 cars built before 1905 set off from Hyde Park for Brighton
In November 1896, a British law raised the speed limit for motor cars from 4 to 14 miles per hour and dropped the requirement for a person with a red flag to walk ahead of the car. The run that celebrated the law gave rise to the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, organized by the Royal Automobile Club and considered the longest-running motoring event of its kind. For the 130th anniversary, on Sunday 1 November, more than 400 vehicles built before 1905 are expected, from about 100 makes, more than 100 of them coming from other countries. The start is at daybreak in Hyde Park, after a red flag is torn up, and the route runs about 60 miles. Among the oldest are two 1895 Peugeots and an 1894 Benz Velo. Sources: Veteran Car Run · ianVisits · SMMT · Wheels Alive
Photo: an electric vehicle charging station with a black cable
02
Auto · Charging
From 10 to 97% in 6 minutes 50 seconds: Chery launches a 1.44 MW charging system for electric cars in China
Chinese carmaker Chery has joined the ultra-fast charging race with a system that delivers up to 1.44 megawatts, presented at an event hosted by the company. According to the company, a compatible battery goes from 10 to 97% in 6 minutes 50 seconds. The first 100 stations are due to open soon in ten Chinese cities, and the target is more than 20,000 stations worldwide by 2029, able to send power back to the grid as well. Chery has not yet said which models will use the system, nor has it published figures for very cold or very hot temperatures. The competition is tight: BYD already has 10,000 high-power chargers installed in China. Sources: Electrek · electrive · Interesting Engineering
Photo: electric car charging stations in a parking lot
03
Auto · Electric
The BMW iX5 charged at 460 kW in a public demo: from 10 to 80% in 22 minutes, with a new generation of batteries
In October, in Southern California, BMW showed how fast its new iX5 electric SUV charges: the 60 xDrive version reached a peak of 460 kW at an IONNA network station with Alpitronic hardware, and went from 10 to 80% in 22 minutes. The speed comes from the sixth generation of its eDrive technology (Gen6), with an 800-volt architecture, cylindrical cells and bidirectional charging. The cylindrical cells offer about 20% higher energy density than the prismatic cells used before. The 460 kW figure, however, is a peak, not a constant rate. In the US, the iX5 starts at $79,800, reaches customers in the first quarter of 2027 and will be built at the Spartanburg plant. Sources: Electrek · Green Start-Up · BMW Group
Photo: polished riveted metal bodywork, a classic car detail
04
Auto · Formula 1
Five McLaren Formula 1 cars leave the team’s collection: from the V12 Senna tested to the car Brad Pitt drove
McLaren is selling five Formula 1 cars from its own collection, kept since their last race. Each car is offered separately through dealer Tom Hartley Jnr, and prices are not public. Two are 1991 MP4/6s with Honda V12 engines, from the year of Ayrton Senna’s last title: Senna tested them, Gerhard Berger raced them. Then come Jenson Button’s 2012 car, the one Lando Norris drove to podiums at Imola, Monaco and Monza in 2021, and finally the 2023 MCL60, the most modern F1 car ever offered for private ownership, also driven by Brad Pitt. “These cars were built to be driven,” says McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. Sources: Top Gear · RACER · Magneto
Photo: a sandy beach with tall dune grass on the Danish coast
Good Life · Hotel
Built in 1935 for sea bathing, it is a hotel again: Cori Hornbæk, north of Copenhagen, has 77 rooms, each with a fireplace
In Hornbæk, on the coast of the island of Zealand, about 45 minutes from Copenhagen, the functionalist building designed in 1935 by Ole Falkentorp as a seaside bathing hotel has regained its original purpose, after many years as a hospital and rehabilitation center. Reopened this autumn as a five-star hotel, Cori has 77 rooms, all with fireplaces, and five townhouses. The renovation was carried out by the AART and NVMBR studios, and the interiors by the designer Afroditi Krassa. In the late 19th century, painters such as Peder Krøyer gathered in Hornbæk too. According to Globetrender, a night costs from about 4,700 Danish kroner.
3 min
Sources: The Art Newspaper · AART architects · Globetrender
Photo: the rocky coast of Mallorca, with cliffs above the sea
Good Life · Trail
Mallorca on foot, from cove to cove: the new GR 226 trail covers about 100 kilometers of the island’s east coast in four stages
Mallorca’s Island Council opened GR 226 earlier this year, the island’s third long-distance hiking trail, after GR 221 and GR 222. Its roughly 100 kilometers cross the Llevant region, through five municipalities, among them Manacor, Artà and Capdepera. The main itinerary has four stages of 22 to 25 kilometers: from Cales de Mallorca to Manacor, then to Son Carrió, to Artà and, finally, to Cala Mesquida, with two extra access links. The difficulty is low, and the route passes small coves, beaches, country lanes and old villages. Time Out notes that the trail also passes Ses Païsses, a 3,000-year-old Bronze Age site.
3 min
Sources: Time Out · Mallorca Global Mag · Falstaff · Euronews
Photo: historic buildings along the water in Gdańsk
Good Life · Market
An 1896 hall, amber-inlaid tables and 34 food spots: Gdańsk’s covered market has reopened, on three levels
Gdańsk’s Hala Targowa, built between 1894 and 1896 to designs by the architect Kurt Fehlhaber, reopened in August, after an 18-month renovation, under the name Enjoy. According to Wiadomości Handlowe, nearly 26,000 people came on the first day. Its three levels hold 34 venues: restaurants upstairs, a street food zone on the ground floor, with cooking from many countries, and shops with fresh and local produce in the basement. The interiors, conceived by Boris Kudlička, leave the historic structure exposed. The tables are made from materials salvaged from the hall, inlaid with amber, and the counters have handmade tiles inspired by the city’s traditional tilework.
3 min
Sources: whiteMAD · Wiadomości Handlowe · Architektura & Biznes · Property Forum
Photo: an alley between traditional hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
Good Life · Neighborhood
Top of the world, according to Time Out: Jongno 3-ga, one of Seoul’s oldest neighborhoods, with late-night food and hanok houses
Jongno 3-ga, one of Seoul’s oldest neighborhoods, ranks first in Time Out’s 2026 “Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World” list, which brings together 40 neighborhoods from 26 countries and territories. The editors praised the new nightlife around the late-night stalls serving affordable food, which draw a young crowd. On Seosulla-gil, the lane beside the Jongmyo Shrine, craft workshops, jewelry studios and refined bars have opened. The alleys of Ikseon-dong, designated Seoul’s oldest hanok village, now house cafés and restaurants in traditional houses. CNN recalls that the neighborhood was third in the same ranking in 2021.
3 min
Sources: Time Out (official announcement) · CNN via CP24 · Korean Cultural Centre Brussels
Photo: the silhouette of a person on a stand up paddleboard on the water
01
Sport · Stand-up paddling (SUP)
One hundred meters in 23.74 seconds: Matei Barbu, 18, from Constanța, is junior SUP world champion once again
Matei Barbu, an 18-year-old from Constanța, won the junior world title in the sprint at the Stand Up Paddling World Championships, held in mid-October in Sabaudia, Italy. He covered the 100 meters in 23.74 seconds, 0.22 seconds ahead of Germany’s Marlon Daskiran, with Portugal’s Lourenço Viveiros in third. It is his second junior world gold in the event, after the one in 2024, and last year he took silver. Asked in the spring whether being champion weighed on him, Barbu said that for him it was “rather motivation.” Sources: Stand Up Magazin · Starboard · Martor Incomod · Total SUP · DNoticias
Photo: a lone sailboat on the ocean under a blue sky
02
Sport · Ocean sailing
118 solo sailors, one start line: the Route du Rhum sets off from Saint-Malo for Guadeloupe on 1 November
The 13th edition of the Route du Rhum, the transatlantic race held every four years, sets off on 1 November at 13:02 from Saint-Malo, in Brittany, for Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe, 3,542 nautical miles away. Lined up on the same start line are 118 solo sailors, from the six 32-meter Ultim trimarans to 49 Class40 boats and vintage yachts. The record belongs to France’s Charles Caudrelier, the 2022 winner: 6 days, 19 hours and 47 minutes. Until the start, the race village, spread over nearly 70,000 square meters on the city’s quays, is free to visit. At the first edition, in 1978, Mike Birch won by just 98 seconds. Sources: Route du Rhum · Sail-World · Figaro Nautisme · MySailing · Figaro Nautisme
Photo: a country road winding through green hills in the Scottish Highlands
03
Sport · Endurance running
99 days, 5,000 kilometers and 78 cities: Esmée Gummer ran across Britain and Ireland all the way to a world record
In early October, at Buckingham Palace, runner Esmée Gummer completed a journey of about 5,000 kilometers across Britain and Ireland, over 99 consecutive days, roughly 50 a day on average. In each of the UK’s 77 cities and in Dublin she hosted a 5-kilometer run, free and open to anyone. In total, 6,684 people came to the 78 gatherings, from four in Bangor to 520 in Westminster. The initiative earned her a Guinness title for the most run clubs hosted in different cities by an individual. At 18, complications from surgery had left her paralyzed, but she regained the ability to walk and went on to run marathons. Sources: Endurance.biz · Marie Claire UK · Sussex Express
Photo: tall grasses and reeds bordering calm water
01
Sustainability · Romania
Three reed ponds instead of pumps and chemicals: Viscri’s natural wastewater system, honored by the New European Bauhaus
Since 2011, the wastewater of Viscri, the UNESCO-listed village in Brașov County, has been cleaned by nature. The system built by the Mihai Eminescu Trust carries the water by gravity through three reed-planted ponds, where bacteria break down pollutants, with no pumps, no chemicals and no energy use. It serves about 500 residents and roughly 60,000 visitors a year, and the maintenance, mainly cutting back the vegetation, is done by the villagers themselves. The project, called ECO H2O, was a finalist in the 2026 New European Bauhaus Prizes, and in October, in Brussels, it received the special prize for water resilience, worth up to €20,000. Sources: New European Bauhaus · Green Start-Up · New European Bauhaus · Brussels Times · Romania Insider
Photo: a wind turbine in the middle of a field
02
Sustainability · Energy
The world’s tallest wind turbine stands 365 meters high: a telescopic tower in Germany catches the wind 300 meters up
At the end of September, in Schipkau, in eastern Germany, the pilot turbine built by the company GICON reached a total height of 365 meters, with its rotor hub at 300 meters. Higher up, the wind is stronger and steadier. The tower is telescopic: the turbine is mounted at an easily reachable height, then rises with the inner tower through a lattice structure. The pilot unit is rated at 3.8 MW, and future versions are expected to exceed 7 MW. At the same rotor diameter, GICON expects roughly twice the output of a conventional turbine. The project was commissioned by SPRIND, Germany’s agency for breakthrough innovation, and official start-up is scheduled for November. Sources: GICON · Electrek · ZDFheute
Photo: a fire burning inside a brick oven
03
Sustainability · Industry
Hot bricks instead of coal and gas: an Australian refinery studies a 360 MWh heat battery charged by the sun
In October, Rio Tinto and California-based Rondo Energy began the engineering study for a huge heat battery at the Yarwun alumina refinery near Gladstone, Queensland. The principle is simple: electricity, ideally cheap midday solar power, heats refractory bricks that store the energy as heat and then release it as steam for the refinery, even after sunset. The 360 MWh battery, delivering up to 30 MW, would cover part of the refinery’s steam needs. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA, is funding the study with 3.6 million Australian dollars and could provide up to 38 million for construction if the project goes ahead. Sources: Rondo Energy · Electrek · Energy-Storage.news
Photo: a playground with a red slide and green trees
04
Sustainability · Cities
Schoolyards without asphalt: Zaragoza turns concrete playgrounds into shaded spaces with trees, designed together with students
In 2024, Zaragoza city council launched “Adapta tu Patio” (“Adapt your schoolyard”), a program that replaces concrete schoolyards with cooler spaces: trees and shrubs, shaded areas, permeable paving that lets water soak into the ground and spots for outdoor lessons. Students, teachers and parents set the priorities in shared workshops, and the children paint a mural for their own school together with an artist. After two pilot schools in 2024, with €50,000 each, five more followed in 2025. The city has a multi-year budget through 2028, aims for at least five new schoolyards a year and could reach 72 schools. This year, the program was also among the finalists of the New European Bauhaus Prizes. Sources: New European Bauhaus · Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza · El Español
Photo: a vintage wooden bellows camera with a large lens
01
Ideas · Photography
The first people ever photographed now have a plaque in Paris: three filmmakers found their exact spot after two years
In 1838, Louis Daguerre photographed the Boulevard du Temple from the window of his studio. The exposure was long, so passersby did not register in the image, only a shoeshiner and his client, who stood still and are considered the first people ever captured in a photograph. Starting in June 2024, filmmakers Maximilien Van Aertryck, Axel Danielson and Kalle Boman searched for the exact spot, using archives, a 3D scan of the area and the help of two architecture firms. Three buildings from the image still stand. On 15 October, a bronze plaque, the artwork “Un détail imprévu” (“An Unexpected Detail”), was unveiled on the Place de la République. Sources: Ville de Paris · Smithsonian · University of Gothenburg
Photo: a small beige Chihuahua on green grass
02
Ideas · Animals
Why small dogs outlive big ones: at the molecular level, their DNA ages more slowly
A Chihuahua can reach 20 years, while a Great Dane rarely lives past 10. A team led by Noah Snyder-Mackler of Arizona State University analyzed the DNA of 894 dogs from the Dog Aging Project, a science project in which their owners take part. The researchers tracked methylation, small chemical tags on DNA that change with age. In large dogs, these changes happen faster, and the tags that keep so-called “jumping genes” in check are lost more quickly. Males, too, age faster at the molecular level than females. The study appeared on 8 October in Science. For now it is an association, not proof that methylation causes aging. Sources: Smithsonian · GEN · KJZZ
Photo: an old book with writing on its pages
03
Ideas · Mysteries
The Voynich Manuscript may have been read in the wrong order for centuries: its pages were likely bound out of sequence
The Voynich Manuscript, about 240 pages long and held at Yale’s Beinecke Library, is written in a script that no one has deciphered. Lisa Fagin Davis of the Medieval Academy of America and Colin Layfield of the University of Malta compared the text of its pages with a statistical method called latent semantic analysis. Their conclusion: the book was meant as a stack of sheets folded in half, not as a bound booklet, and the sheets were mixed up when it was bound. This would explain why the five scribes seem to alternate without logic and why some drawings continue far from the page where they begin. The analysis was published in October in Digital Medievalist, but the text remains undeciphered. Sources: Live Science · Smithsonian · Gizmodo
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