Most Curious Stories from Times Online

Celebrity watch: I'm Katie, get me in here

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:51:45 GMT

10 Up Mark Owen

Substitute skin could provide new treatment for burns

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:33 GMT

Sheets of “substitute skin” have been grown from embryonic stem cells in research that promises to lead to new treatments for burns.

Original King Kong model skeleton set to fetch £150,000 at auction

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

He rampaged through New York and scaled the Empire State Building with Fay Wray in one hand, yet the real King Kong failed to terrify London yesterday — because he is less than two feet tall.

Large Hadron Collider to be started up after fault forced year-long closure

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be started up tonight for the first time since a catastrophic fault forced it to be shut down for more than a year.

Former world champion John Surtees tests electric car under the Channel

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

There are few things more tempting to a petrolhead than 31 miles (50 km) of clear track, and no corners.

Greenhouse gas emissions study highlights need for tighter national targets

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Developing countries now emit more greenhouse gas than rich countries, according to a study that will intensify demands for all countries to set targets for cutting emissions.

Conservation of Charles Darwin’s Floreana mockingbird aided by genetic study

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Efforts to protect the endangered bird that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and to carry out a reintroduction to its native island, have been advanced by a new genetic study.

Swindon to become first UK wi-fi town

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:17 GMT

Until yesterday Swindon was stuck squarely between Bristol and Reading on the M4 corridor in Wiltshire. Now it has moved one step closer to Silicon Valley with plans to become Britain’s first wi-fi town, and free internet access for its 186,000-strong population.

Google opens new chapter as millions of books go into its online library

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:02:48 GMT

Controversial plans by Google to digitise millions of out-of-print books to create the world’s biggest online library have been approved by British publishing groups and authors.

BBC sees off plan to use licence fee for regional news on commercial channels

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Ministers have backed down from a fight with the BBC after they called for the corporation to hand over part of the licence fee to pay for regional news on other channels.

A tough guy on screen, charming off it, actors pay tribute to Edward Woodward

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

The Wicker Man made him a cult hero, The Equalizer made him rich and his name made him an irresistible target for anyone with a whimsical sense of humour.

A life online: Belle de Jour and other mystery sex bloggers

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

She was called a “by-numbers male construct” by India Knight, but this weekend the blogger Belle de Jour revealed she was the real deal, a middle-class woman who funded her PhD by becoming a prostitute.

Celebrity Watch: Simon Cowell unmasked

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:20:11 GMT

1 DOWN Simon Cowell

Sabi the army dog returns home after 14 months lost in Afghanistan

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:36:17 GMT

Special Forces units make a point of never leaving one of their own behind — and Australia’s Sabi is no exception.

Kirsty Moore, first woman Red Arrows pilot, was inspired by her father

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:01:31 GMT

Her colleagues may tease her about her flame-coloured hair, but the daughter of a Gulf War hero was yesterday delighted to have made history by becoming the first woman pilot to join the Red Arrows.

He shoots, he scores, but Wayne Rooney has not changed a nappy

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

The world has moved on since Martin Allen was fined £1,500 for dashing away from a QPR match 20 years ago to be at the birth of his son. But has anyone told Wayne Rooney?

Cocaine baron makes it on to magazine's list of world's powerful

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

He is Mexico’s most wanted drug lord, the head of a cartel that has brought billions of dollars’ worth of cocaine into the United States, a man with a $5 million ($£3 million) price tag on his head — and he has been named by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s most powerful people.

Leading champagne houses are angered by cut-price Christmas offers

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

True extent of Ukraine famine revealed in British journalist’s diaries

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Millions of peasants were starving. Children were turned against adults as they were recruited to expose people accused of hoarding grain. Stalin sealed the border between Russia and Ukraine to ensure that news of the famine would not spread, but one journalist was able to break through to discover the truth.

Rowan Williams: Anglican future looks 'chaotic and uncertain'

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:58 GMT

The future of the Anglican Communion looks “more than usually chaotic and uncertain”, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has admitted.

David Dimbleby misses Question Time after accident with bullock

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:29 GMT

Seven hundred protesters and an outpouring of public anger could not stop David Dimbleby from hosting Question Time when Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, appeared on the show. But a bullock has succeeded where anti-fascist protesters and politicians failed after it knocked the broadcaster, 71, unconscious in what the BBC described as a “minor farming accident”.

China eyes the top slot in World Memory Championships

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:08 GMT

As tales of sporting domination go, it is one that sounds woefully familiar. First the British invent a game, then the Germans show us how it is really played, until finally the Chinese arrive and, by sheer weight of numbers — not to mention obsessive training schedules and state intervention — establish themselves as world No 1.

Spiritualist sacked by police wins ruling over his faith in psychics

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A police trainer sacked for saying that psychics should be used to solve crimes must have his views respected as a religious faith, a judge ruled yesterday.

NHS scanner will spot chest pain problems in a flash

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:05:59 GMT

A scanner that provides extraordinary high-definition images of the chest at the speed of half a heart beat, allowing doctors to pick up signs of cardiac disease undetectable by conventional tests, is to be introduced on the NHS.

A-level computerised exam markers give Churchill a fail

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

They are some of the most memorable and stirring words of the 20th century, but Churchill’s speech exhorting the British to “fight on the beaches” would fail if submitted as a school essay and subjected to a proposed computerised marking system.