Uncovering Secret Messages

by Joe Nickell

Skeptical Briefs · Investigative Files · Volume 22.4

Among my many interests as a boy was cryptography—the study of codes, ciphers, and other secret writings. I sent and received nighttime Morse code messages by flashlight between neighbors’ houses and mine, made and solved cryptograms, used my forensic chemistry lab to make various invisible inks and developers, and even compiled a treatise on the subject.

“Phenomenology” Paranormal Conference Shows Shift from Sciencey to Spiritual

by Sharon Hill

Special Articles · Sounds Sciencey

April 24, 2013

When paranormal investigators give up on sciencey stuff, what's the alternative? The spiritual. I take you on a tour of a recent paranormal convention.

Don’t Burn Your Bra for Science Just Yet

by Rebecca Watson

Special Articles

April 17, 2013

There are many ways a science news story can hit the mainstream media and become a viral hit: does it involve an adorable, terrifying, or adorably terrifying new species of animal? Did a politician say something hilariously ignorant about it? And perhaps more importantly, does it involve breasts?

El feto humano de ‘Sirius’

by Luis Alfonso Gámez

Special Articles · ¡Paparruchas!

April 16, 2013

La historia del ahora famoso extraterrestre comenzó hace unos diez años, cuando el huaquero -saqueador de yacimientos- Óscar Muñoz desenterró el cuerpo en un cementerio en el pueblo abandonado de La Noria, en el desierto de Atacama (Chile). El ser estaba envuelto en una tela blanca.

Getting Into Pterosaur Trouble – An Interview With Daniel Loxton

by Kylie Sturgess

Special Articles · Curiouser and Curiouser

April 3, 2013

“The goal for Pterosaur Trouble and the other Tales of Prehistoric Life series books is persuasive photorealism—or heightened realism, anyway. I want it to look like I just popped back in time with my camera and took some nature photographs. That concept constrains every aspect of the creation of the illustrations.”

This Week in Conspiracy: For Fear of a Jesuit Planet

by Robert Blaskiewicz

Special Articles · This Week in Conspiracy

April 1, 2013

In the lore of conspiracism, few religious groups, with the exception of Jews, are more feared or thought to be more powerful than the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). As I write, it was only yesterday that the College of Cardinals elected the first Jesuit pontiff, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis), which makes you wonder: If they were so powerful, what took them so long to ascend to power?