So who was it that actually discovered electricity and took the opportunity to create an artificial light source? Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison are the respective gentlemen believed to be the fathers of light or at least that’s the answer that has been accepted as a fact. Curiosity and surprise have been present when trying […]
Ever since the human race has lived in communities and farmed the land, water management has been a key factor in the well-being and prosperity of a community. Settlements not immediately near a fresh-water source dug shafts into underground water tables to create wells and cisterns were also created to collect rainwater so that it […]
Fractals are some of the most beautiful and most bizarre geometric shapes. They look the same at various different scales – you can take a small extract of the shape and it looks the same as the entire shape. This curious property is called self-similarity. To create a fractal, you can start with a simple […]
Canute the Viking King Who was this man, who started his adult life as a Viking warrior and went on to become the ruler of an empire which, at its height, included England, Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden? Canute (who is known as Knud in Denmark and Knut in Norway) was the son of […]
Many people have read or at least heard the biblical story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. What I find interesting is so many know about the 10 commandments but have never heard of the 42 Laws of Maat. Maat was the Egyptian Goddess designed to avert chaos (Islet) and maintain truth (Maat) in ancient […]
We have found that the larva of a common insect, Galleria mellonella, is able to biodegrade one of the toughest, most resilient, and most used plastics: polyethylene,” says Federica Bertocchini of the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria in Spain. A previous study (doi: 10.1021/es504038a) has shown that Plodia interpunctella wax worms, the larvae […]
The Cartwheel Galaxy is a lenticular galaxy and ring galaxy located in the southern constellation Sculptor. The galaxy lies at an approximate distance of 496 million light years from Earth. It is about 150,000 light years across in size, which makes it slightly larger than the Milky Way. The galaxy’s unusual appearance resembles that of […]
Titanoboa was a true monster among prehistoric snakes, the size and weight of an extremely elongated school bus. Research has indicated that the giant snake looked like a boa constrictor—hence its name—but hunted like a crocodile. Here are nine facts about this 50-foot-long, 2,000-pound menace of the Paleocene epoch: Appeared 5 Million Years After the […]