What we can learn from 'untranslatable' illnesses

"DO NOT FEAR KORO," screamed the headline in the Straits Times newspaper on November 7, 1967. In the preceding days, a peculiar phenomenon had swept across Singapore. Thousands of men had spontaneously become convinced that their penises were shrinking away - and that the loss would eventually kill them.

The missing continent it took 375 years to find

It was 1642 and Abel Tasman was on a mission. The experienced Dutch sailor, who sported a flamboyant moustache, bushy goatee and penchant for rough justice - he later tried to hang some of his crew on a drunken whim - was confident of the existence of a vast continent in the southern hemisphere, and determined to find it.

The medications that change who we are

To mark the end of a turbulent year, we are bringing back some of our favourite stories for BBC Future's "Best of 2020" collection. Discover more of our picks here "Patient Five" was in his late 50s when a trip to the doctors changed his life.

How the news changes the way we think and behave

Alison Holman was working on a fairly ordinary study of mental health across the United States. Then tragedy struck. On 15 April 2013, as hundreds of runners streaked past the finish line at the annual Boston Marathon, two bombs exploded, ten seconds apart. Three people were killed that day, including an eight-year-old boy.

The nuclear mistakes that nearly caused World War Three

It was the middle of the night on 25 October 1962 and a truck was racing down a runway in Wisconsin. It had just moments to stop a flight. Mere minutes earlier, a guard at Duluth Sector Direction Center had glimpsed a shadowy form attempting to climb the facility's perimeter fence.

The forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name

In 2011, archaeologists found something unusual in a Roman toilet. The team were excavating the ancient village of Tasgetium (now Eschenz, Switzerland), ruled by a Celtic king who was personally given the land by Julius Caesar.

The reason why some people don't wash their hands

"My 2019 resolution is to say things on air that I say off air..." - the famous last words of Pete Hegseth last year, just before he revealed a secret that set the internet alight. At the time, Hegseth was best known as a Fox News presenter who had a sprinkling of controversial views.

The mystery viruses far worse than flu

It arrived with the army of England's new king. Just days earlier, tens of thousands of men had been fighting for their lives on a marshy field in Bosworth, Leicestershire. There, in the summer of 1485, the bitter rivalry between Henry Tudor and Richard III was finally resolved - with Richard III dying at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

Here's what we know sex with Neanderthals was like

Their eyes met across the rugged mountain landscape of prehistoric Romania. He was a Neanderthal, and stark naked apart from a fur cape. He had good posture and pale skin, perhaps reddened slightly with sunburn. Around one of his thick, muscular biceps he wore bracelet of eagle-talons.

What we can learn from conspiracy theories

In 331 BC, something was wrong with Rome. Across the city, swathes of eminent men were succumbing to sickness, and practically all of them were dying. The losses were as baffling as they were alarming. Then one day, a slave approached a curule aedile - a kind of magistrate - and hinted that she might know why.

The 432-year-old manual on social distancing

It was the dead of night in mid-November 1582. A sailor stepped onto the dock at the port of Alghero, Sardinia, and took in the view of the city for the last time. The unfortunate mariner is thought to have arrived from Marseille, 447km (278 miles) across the Mediterranean Sea.

The hidden biases that drive anti-vegan hatred

In July 2019, a bare-chested, pony-tailed man turned up at a vegan market in London, and began snacking on a raw squirrel. In video footage of the bizarre incident, the pro-meat protester can be seen clutching the animal's limp, furry body - sans head - while a stunned crowd waits for him to be arrested.

The ghostly radio station that no one claims to run

BBC Future has brought you in-depth and rigorous stories to help you navigate the current pandemic, but we know that's not all you want to read. So now we're dedicating a series to help you escape. We'll be revisiting our most popular features from the last three years in our Lockdown Longreads.

What the mysterious boredom divide teaches us

The thumping of valves. The cacophonous rumbling. The powerful kick in the back as the rocket's engines ignite. The alarmingly realistic possibility that these will be your last precious moments alive. By all accounts, the journey into space is a thrilling ride.

How solitude and isolation can affect your social skills

Neil Ansell became a hermit entirely by accident. Back in the 1980s, he was living in a squat in London with 20 other people. Then someone made him an offer he couldn't refuse: a cottage in the Welsh mountains, with rent of just £100 ($130) per year.

The mystery of why some vaccines are doubly beneficial

Peter Aaby shakes his head, as though he still can't believe it. "That was the start of it really - something very strange happened," he says. Today Aaby is speaking with me via Skype from his native Denmark.

The strange truth about the pill

It all started with a Mexican yam. It was 1942 and a chemistry professor from Pennsylvania was looking for a cheap source of progesterone. The hormone had many uses at the time, including preventing miscarriages and treating women going through the menopause.