杏吧原创

鈥� JANUARY

Trees close to a giant military communications antenna in Michigan have grown more quickly since broadcasts from the antenna began in 1986, report forestry researchers. They claim that low frequency electromagnetic fields have a similar effect to traditional fertilisers

鈥� FEBRUARY

A 60-year-old Northumberland man suffocates when freak weather causes a drop in air pressure. This drop was responsible for sucking carbon dioxide out of a disused coal mine and into the surrounding countryside where the man was walking

鈥� MARCH

A herd of elephants, intoxicated after inhaling alcoholic fumes, smash through a house in the Midnapore district of West Bengal and trample a man brewing moonshine to death

鈥� APRIL

Strange smells, described as a mixture of rotten eggs, manure and industrial waste, spread across the Southeast of England. Dutch pig farmers, who keep effluent in huge slurry ponds on the other side of the English Channel, deny responsibility

鈥� MAY

American scientists revive prehistoric bacteria from a bee that was entombed in amber 40 million years ago. Sceptics believe the bacteria owe their origins more to sloppy laboratory techniques than the kind of resurrection of prehistoric life seen in Jurassic Park

鈥� JUNE

Kenyan MP Chris Kamuyu proposes that hyenas be used in hospitals with no mortuaries to eat the bodies of the unclaimed dead

鈥� JULY

Lottery players are more likely to predict the correct combination of numbers on days when there is low geomagnetic activity, claims a Russian astrophysicist who carried out a ten-year statistical study of French and Soviet lotteries

鈥� AUGUST

A giant comet is rumoured to be on a collision course with Earth, following its discovery by two American astronomers. The rumours are quashed when some calculations show that it will miss the Earth by nearly 200 million kilometres. Nevertheless, astronomers expect Comet Hale-Bopp to put on a spectacular show when it passes in 1997

鈥� SEPTEMBER

Probably the oldest turds in the world are unveiled by British researchers. The 鈥渃oprolites鈥� are thought to have been deposited 412 million years ago by millipedes which had gorged themselves on rotting plant material in the soil

鈥� OCTOBER

Archaeologists discover a pair of leather underpants in the wreck of a 20-metre Bronze-Age boat being excavated near Dover. A spokesperson from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust says the underpants were used to plug a leak during a Channel crossing

鈥� NOVEMBER

The oldest Vodka in the world hits the shops in North America. Canadian Iceberg Vodka is made from ingredients that include water harvested from 12 000-year-old icebergs

鈥� DECEMBER

Artificial scents that imitate the smell of dead humans are developed in the US. The aromas, known as 鈥淧seudo Corpse鈥� and 鈥淧seudo Drowned Body鈥�, are used to train police dogs to recognise dead bodies