Mark Pilkington: "I can conceive of nothing, in religion, science or philosophy, that is anything more than the proper thing to wear, for a while," wrote the great American satirist of science and collator of "damned data", Charles Hoy Fort.

Mark Pilkington: After studying medicine in Edinburgh, in the early 1770s James Graham headed to New England before settling in Philadelphia. Here he encountered the electrical demonstrations of Benjamin Franklin and realised that this strange new force could galvanise a revolution in wellness.

Mark Pilkington: In 1985, Swiss-Canadian anthropology student Jeremy Narby spent a year at Quirishari in the Peruvian Amazon, studying how the Ashaninca tribe made use of indigenous resources. Asking where their knowledge of jungle plants and animals originated, they told Narby that they were taught by nature itself.

Mark Pilkington: "The summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous one and full of horrible phaenomena," writes the Hampshire naturalist Gilbert White in The Natural History of Selbourne (1789).

Mark Pilkington: No sooner had Nasa published images of an ice lake on the Martian plain Vastitas Borealis, than internet exo-archaeologists were excitedly pointing out the crumbled ruins of a vast, ancient city.

Mark Pilkington: As the discovery of another possible planet in our solar system raises pulses in the cosmological community, for a few anxious skywatchers the news may herald our own planet's impending annihilation.

Mark Pilkington:The early 19th century saw the first appearance of hashish and cannabis in western Europe. Curious about its potential, Dr Jacques-Joseph Moreau De Tour began to experiment with the drug, on himself and his patients.

Mark Pilkington: Emerging from every orifice on the medium's body, ectoplasm would first manifest in the shape of drops or a thin thread, before expanding to take on shapes: human, animal or abstract.

Mark Pilkington: According to Dr Judith Reisman, pornography affects the physical structure of your brain turning you into a porno-zombie.

Mark Pilkington: Digital technology has revolutionised photography but, 40 years ago, a hard-drinking Chicago hotel porter, Ted Serios, demonstrated abilities that make today's techniques seem primitive.

Mark Pilkington: In 1952, airline pilot Bruce Cathie's life changed for ever. He watched as a bright white light, accompanied by a smaller red light, "carried out manoeuvres that no known man-made vehicle could accomplish at that time". He'd seen his first UFO.

Mark Pilkington: Could colossal, primitive lifeforms, invisible to human eyes, populate our skies?

Next summer sees the launch of a remarkable expedition led by Steve Currey of Povo, Utah. Participants will board a Russian nuclear icebreaker and head to the north polar opening of the Hollow Earth.

The Chronovisor tuned into the events of the past and displayed them like time-travelling television.

Do depressed lab rats dictate international drug policy?

MIT's Time Traveller Convention was, say its organisers, a mixed success. While a good time was had by all, no attendees admitted to being temporal vagrants. But this does not mean that there were none there.

In 1782, 15 prestigious observers watched keenly as a 24-year-old chemist, James Price, mixed mercury with a tiny amount of a mysterious red powder, leaving behind a yellow metal, later identified by an independent goldsmith as gold.

In February 2004, a team of Russian and American physicists discovered a new element which might just be the power source of flying saucers.

Could a renowned medium of ample girth have been teleported across London by the spirits in 1871?

Radar-invisible Stealth aircraft and ships are a regular part of modern warfare. The next generations are said to blend into their environment using what's called "adaptive camouflage", making them invisible to the eye as well as radar.