They Did What?
One of the latest advancements in the field of nanomedicine was announced near the end of March in the journal Nano Letters, and it came with a bit of a hardcore theme. Vice reported on April 28 that researchers in China had dehydrated and cooled tardigrades, the famously resilient micro-animals known colloquially as water bears, and used an electron beam and a coating of a compound called anisole to tattoo microscopic patterns on their bodies. According to the abstract, the experiment “has potential applications in cryopreservation, biomedicine, and astrobiology.” Forty percent of the creatures survived the process, and the researchers hope to improve the survival rate in future tests.
Awwwww!
Pat DeReamer of Louisville, Kentucky, and Mary Wheaton go waaaaay back — all the way to 1944 in Indianapolis, when Wheaton gave DeReamer a birthday card for her 14th birthday on April 1. When Wheaton’s birthday came around a month later, DeReamer added her own message to the same card and gave it back to Wheaton. For the last 81 years, they’ve been sending the card back and forth, WLKY-TV reported. “We never said, ‘We’re going to do this,’” DeReamer said. “It just happened.” Now in their 90s, the old friends don’t get together as much, but they remain “really good friends.”
The Passing Parade
• Delhi, India’s “Potty Badmash,” a 27-year-old pickpocket named Deepak, was finally arrested on March 24, The Times of India reported. Deepak is famous for committing thefts and knife-related crimes, then soiling his pants, creating a stench so terrible that it kept officers away from him. This time, however, they armed themselves with gloves and masks. “Team gave him chase and pinned him down,” said an officer. “As expected, Deepak deployed his famous ‘filth plan’ but the officers … thwarted his last-ditch effort and took him in custody.” When they searched him, they found a knife, which Deepak described as his “lucky charm.” During questioning he admitted to multiple mobile phone thefts and other crimes.
• A 56-year-old Warsaw, Poland, cleaner is facing up to 20 years behind bars after she was caught putting cleaning fluid in a co-worker’s drinks, Oddity Central reported on March 28. The 51-year-old victim visited the doctor with stomach pains and was told her internal injuries were consistent with poisoning. She couldn’t think of anything that might be causing her discomfort, but then remembered that her morning cup of tea had tasted odd in recent weeks. She installed a hidden camera and saw that her co-worker was spraying corrosive substances in her tea and on her soda bottle. The perpetrator had been talking with another woman while poisoning the drinks; both of them said they just didn’t like the victim. The accomplice could get three years in prison.
That’s Some Reach
Earth-shaking is one thing, but space-shaking? A new study published April 3 in the journal AGU Advances concluded that the January 2022 eruption of the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, which registered as one of the most powerful in modern history and blasted ash and gas 31 miles into the atmosphere, actually produced secondary gravity waves that reached the edge of space — you know, where the satellites we rely on for GPS technology, communication, and tracking the weather are in orbit. MSN reported that the findings are “prompting scientists to reassess the potential impacts of volcanic activity on our technological infrastructure.”
Nightmare Travel
A recent Southwest Airlines flight was met by law enforcement after landing in Chicago, where police removed a passenger who had stripped naked and defecated on her seat, NBC Chicago reported on April 25. The plane was taken out of service to be cleaned. Southwest, just the latest airline to be put in the unenviable position of apologizing for the bizarre behavior of an unruly passenger, issued a statement: “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees, and we appreciate the professionalism of our flight crew.”
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
© 2025 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved.
