No, this story is not about space travel. It is about the naming of elements, specifically, selenium, discovered by the Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius in 1817. He named it after Selene, the...
In 2015, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word “cisgender” to its ever-evolving listing. It defines the adjective as “designating a person whose sense of personal identity and gender...
A rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. That’s not just an old adage. It’s a scientific fact. And it all has to do with ethylene, a gas produced internally by the fruit to stimulate ripening....
Being left-handed can be devilishly hard. In 1937, an educational psychologist whose work was later discredited wrote of many left-handers that “they squint, they stammer, they shuffle and shamble,...
You stick them into a birthday cake, stand back and revel in the brilliant shower of sparks. What you are witnessing are glowing metal particles, usually aluminum, but iron titanium, zinc or...
Some companies have benefitted from COVID-19. Like those that manufacture plexiglass. Banks, stores, automobile dealers all feature plexiglass panels to reduce the chance of viral transmission. The...
Sir Francis Bacon, an important figure in the development of the scientific method, claimed in his work on natural history that when a basil plant was exposed too much to the sun, it became wild...
Simple. Because baby houseflies don’t exist. A little backgrounder on the flies’ reproductive cycle can clear up this apparent conundrum. Within a week of mating, a doggie-style activity lasting...
Guests at the Cypress Cove Nudist Resort in Florida routinely emerge from the swimming pool and walk over to a nearby row of citrosa plants. They proceed to shake the shrubbery and then rub their...
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