There was something spectral about the sight of the old bridge at Mostar - as though the normal laws of the physical universe did not apply to it.

BBC: The new Mostar bridge

The distribution of normal matter in the early universe (380, 000 years after everything began, which was 13 billion years ago) was worked out a few years ago by looking at the background of microwaves left over from that early epoch.

ECONOMIST: Astronomy

And a big chunk of pay goes to normal employees, not masters of the universe.

ECONOMIST: Banks and bonuses

While time passes extremely slowly on Earth, the rest of the universe continues on at a normal pace.

FORBES: Aliens, Global Warming, and the Intergalactic Arms Race

The analysis of the CMB data, released last Thursday, indicates that only 15.5% of the Universe's matter is what we would call "normal" - that is, the atomic material from which planets, stars and galaxies are built.

BBC: Planck telescope: A map of all the 'stuff' in the cosmos

Based on a clever novel by Gregory Maguire, the musical is an exercise in high camp a universe turned topsy-turvy, where good is bad, normal is abnormal, and the purest well yields the sourest water.

NEWYORKER: Wicked