Most Googled word of the year revealed

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And other stories from the stranger side of life

The most Googled word of 2022 has been revealed – Wordle. The word game also influenced other Google searches, as seven of the top 10 searched-for word definitions in 2022 were Wordle answers: cacao, homer, canny, foray, trove, saute and tacit. The death of Queen Elizabeth II made the top five for global search interest and Ukraine was also a commonly searched term, noted the BBC. The searches were revealed by the tech giant in their annual Year in Search report.

Fugitive arrested after Facebook taunt

A US fugitive who asked on Facebook why he wasn’t on a Georgia sherrif’s Most Wanted List helped lead police to him, reported Fox News. After the sheriff’s office posted its list, Christopher Spaulding commented “How about me?” The department replied: “You are correct you have two warrants, we are on the way.” It later posted a screenshot of the exchange along with Spaulding’s arrest photo, writing: “We appreciate you for your assistance in your capture!”

Ancient DNA reveals Greenland of old

The oldest DNA ever sequenced has revealed what the Arctic looked like two million years ago. Scientists in Greenland found the ancient DNA in sediment from the Ice Age, opening a new chapter in paleogenetics. Although today the area in North Greenland is a polar desert, the genetic material showed “genetic traces of elephant-like mastodons, reindeer and geese that existed alongside among birch and poplar trees”, said Nature.

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