The Download: down the Mandela effect rabbit hole, and the promise of a vaccine for colds

Quick question: Does the Fruit of the Loom logo feature a cornucopia?

Many of us have been wearing the company’s T-shirts for decades, and yet the question of whether there is a woven brown horn of plenty on the logo is surprisingly contentious.

According to a 2022 poll, 55% of Americans believe the logo does include a cornucopia, 25% are unsure, and only 21% are confident that it doesn’t, even though this last group is correct.

There’s a name for what’s happening here: the “Mandela effect,” or collective false memory, so called because a number of people misremember that Nelson Mandela died in prison. Yet while many find it easy to let their unconfirmable beliefs go, some spend years seeking answers—and vindication. Read the full story.

—Amelia Tait

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.

Here’s why we don’t have a cold vaccine. Yet.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the season of the sniffles. As the weather turns, we’re all spending more time indoors. The kids have been back at school for a couple of months. And cold germs are everywhere.

So why can’t we get a vaccine to protect us against the common cold? Scientists have been working on this for decades, but it turns out that creating a cold vaccine is hard. Really hard. But not impossible. There’s still hope. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou