Just a bit of everything

Chemin Vert

In VR you can be anyone you want to be — including a kitten-rescuing hero

A small amusement park exists inside an ancient Romanian salt mine

A theme park now occupies the ancient salt mine Salina Turda in Romania. The massive underground space, which dates back as many as 2,000 years, opened to the public in 1992, when it was first repurposed as the unconventional amusement park. From the Middle Ages to World War II, the space has quite a history

These are amazing — and shockingly accurate. Did you know there’s a “Bechdel test” for female scientist biographies?

« Je viens de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard. J'ai fait toutes les provinces, mais quand je suis arrivé ici dans les années 90, c'était comme l'Inde pour moi. Tout était différent. Quand tu es chez toi, les gens veulent parfois te garder à ta place, ils t'empêchent d'évoluer. Comme quand tu es à un dîner de famille : tu reprends ta chaise de petit garçon et rien ne change, sauf toi. Au Québec mon ego est comme à la bonne place. Rien que pour la langue ! Il faut tout apprendre et ça force l'humilité. »

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A good use for roadkill? Researchers in Switzerland have discovered a way to successfully extract DNA of insects killed by traffic, which will come in handy for population genetics studies of protected species such as the longhorn beetle known as Iberodorcadion fuliginator. 

People love gadgets — especially shiny new ones. Bigger screens. Faster processors. Slimmer profiles. But what happens to our mobile phones, computers and televisions when we upgrade?

Some of them end up in a place like Agbogbloshie, a vast, poisonous dump in Ghana. A former wetland turned slum, the kilometer-long stretch of land is a toxic graveyard of computers, refrigerators and other trash.

German photographer Kevin McElvaney documents the young people who pick through the piles, risking their lives in exchange for the meager sums they earn harvesting copper and other valuables.