In 1930's Oxford, breakfast conversations between grandparents and their grandchildren weren't usually front-page news. But for Venetia Burney, a bright-eyed student, one such conversation would etch her name in the annals of history.
Far out in the Indian Ocean lies North Sentinel Island, home to the Sentinelese, one of the most isolated indigenous tribes on Earth. For millennia, the Sentinelese have resisted contact with the outside world, turning away expeditions and sometimes responding violently to protect their way of life.
As World War II ravaged Europe in the early 1940s, both sides sought any advantage that could turn the tide of the conflict. Great Britain hatched one of the most sinister secret plans of the war - Operation Vegetarian - a biological attack to cripple Germany’s food supply using anthrax-infected cattle cakes.
In the late 1800s, cities faced a smelly crisis that seemed unsolvable. Streets were choking on the massive quantities of manure left behind by the thousands of horses essential for transport and shipping.
In the Himalayan foothills at the turn of the 20th century, an unsettling quiet fell upon a string of villages dotting the forested landscape. An ominous chill took hold as locals ceased venturing beyond their doors.
In the throes of the Cold War, the CIA commissioned a bombshell report on the furthest frontiers of human consciousness. Recently declassified, this document chronicles the spy agency’s foray into a technique called the “Gateway Experience”