Posted: 10:14:18 AM  

The year was 1762.
In a house in Cock Lane, not far from St Paul's Cathedral, an audience of esteemed gentlemen - including two physicians - filed into a bedroom.

Elizabeth Parsons - a little artful girl, about 11 years of age' - was publicly undressed, and with her younger sister, put to bed in front of them.

And then the séance began.
One knock for yes, two knocks for no.

Posted: 10:01:09 AM  

Europe's debt crisis returned to haunt the continent's leaders today as bank shares took a gigantic tumble and the single currency fell to a 16-month low against the pound and dollar.

DEBT = making money

Posted: 9:56:55 AM  

Nightmarish "supersoldier" ants with huge heads and jaws have been created by activating ancient genes.

Authors Dr Rajendhran Rajakumar, from McGill University, Canada, and colleagues wrote:
"We uncovered an ancestral development potential to produce a novel supersoldier subcaste that has been retained throughout a hyperdiverse ant genus that evolved 35 to 60 million years ago."

Waking up the dinosaurs ...

Posted: 9:55:14 AM  

It is often overlooked. Historians acknowledge the bad weather that almost stopped William the Conqueror in 1066 and the protestant wind saw off the Spanish Armada in 1588.

The epic snow-bound winter of 1947 and the forest- felling hurricane of 1987 have both passed into legend.

But the daddy of all these disasters - the one against which this week's heavy winds can justifiably be measured - was three centuries ago, in the reign of Queen Anne.

Posted: 9:51:12 AM