Build a conspiracy theory from scratch.
The best way to learn to spot a conspiracy theory is to make one yourself.
Pick a real news story. On the next step you'll choose who's behind it and why. Then walk through the four moves real conspiracists use, with a debunk on every step.
- Hunt anomalies — turn coincidence into evidence of a secret plot.
- Fabricate connections — draw lines between unrelated dots until they look meaningful.
- Dismiss counter-evidence — if a fact disagrees, make the fact part of the cover-up.
- Discredit the critics — dismiss people who point out flaws in your theory.
Pick the event.
Choose whichever real-feeling headline your imagination will run wildest with. Don't overthink it.
Pandemic led to varied changes
Research compiled by YouGov shows that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted different changes in daily routines around the world. In some places people slept more—Saudi Arabia, Brazil, China and Turkey reported increases—while Australians and Britons admitted to drinking more and residents of Mexico, Brazil and Spain reported cutting back on alcohol. Exercise rose in countries including China, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and the United States, and various nations reported shifts in diet quality.
Apple Teaching Siri Lip Reading
Apple has filed a patent application that describes using motion sensing to detect lip and head movements so Siri could recognize commands without relying only on a microphone. The filing, titled "Keyword Detection Using Motion Sensing," explains how analyzing mouth shapes and subtle head motions might identify common phrases, which could help the assistant work better in noisy environments or avoid false activations from background speech.
India launching Sun-bound spacecraft.
India’s space agency ISRO plans to launch Aditya-L1, a satellite designed to observe the Sun, on 2 September. The spacecraft will travel to the Sun–Earth Lagrange Point 1, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, where it can keep the Sun continuously in view. The mission follows India’s successful Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing and represents a major step in the country’s expanding space programme, aimed at improving understanding of solar activity.
Revive extinct creatures: big debate?
Scientists and conservationists are debating de-extinction, the idea of bringing extinct species back using modern genetic tools. Advances such as PCR, genome sequencing and gene editing have made it technically plausible to reconstruct genomes from preserved DNA. Companies like Colossal Biosciences aim to use these methods to create proxy woolly mammoths by editing Asiatic elephant DNA. Proponents argue such projects could help restore lost ecological functions and biodiversity.