Facts About All

Sir Alexander Fleming

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sir Alexander Fleming was a British bacteríologist. Born Lockfield, Scotland, Aug. 6, 1881. Died London, England, Mar. 11, 1955.
Fleming was awarded a share of the 1945 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for his discovery of penicillin. In 1928, Fleming noticed that a mold, which had apparently come through a window of his laboratory, had contaminated a culture plate on which he was growing bacteria. Around the mold was a clear circle, where all the bacteria had been killed. Fleming identified the mold as Penicillium notatum and called the bacteria-killing substance it produced penicillin. Fleming later found that penicillin kills many kinds of bacteria and is nonpoisonous to humans. Fleming also discovered lysozyme, a substance in the body that can dissolve certain bacteria.

Perpetual Motion Machines

2012-01-27T18:14:00.000-08:00

Man's quest for free power
The first law of thermodynamics says, in effect, that you cannot get something for nothing—but that has never stopped people from trying. It is scientifically impossible to build a machine that will run without an external energy supply, yet for centuries inventors have persisted with designs for perpetual-motion machines.
One of the most common was a gravity-operated overbalancing wheel. If a weight is attached near the top of an upright wheel, the wheel will rotate until the weight reaches the bottom. If it were possible to arrange a series of weights around the wheel so that those on the way down were farther from the wheel's center
than those on the way up, the result would be an overbalancing wheel that would keep on turning.
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Fleur-de-lis

2012-01-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

The Fleur-de-lis is an old heraldic device, commonly associated with the royal house of France. It is a stylized representation of a lily or a white iris. The fleur-de-lis symbol was used in ancient India and Egypt and has also been found on Etruscan bronzes. A popular heraldic device in several European countries during the Middle Ages, the design was adopted in France in the 12th century. The earliest French royal arms had a number of golden fleurs-de-lis scattered on a blue field. A later design, consisting of three fleurs-de-lis on the same field, was the official French coat of arms until the Revolution of 1830.

Ian Fleming

2012-01-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

Ian Fleming was an English author. Born London, England, May 28, 1908. Died London, Aug. 12, 1964.
Fleming was the author of the famous James Bond spy stories. Among his best-known suspense novels are Casino Royale (1954), From Russia With Love (1957), Goldfinger (1959), and The Spy Who Loved Me (1962). Several of Flermng's novels about James Bond's international adventures in espionage have been adapted as highly successful motion pictures.
Fleming's experiences as a royal navy intelligence officer during World War II are often reflected in his novels. He worked as a special correspondent for the London Times and was a member of the editorial board of the London Sunday Times.

John Gay

2012-01-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

John Gay (1685-1732)

John Gay was an English poet and dramatist, born in Devonshire. After a brief apprenticeship to a London mercer, he lived for a time as a literary Bohemian, contributing satirical prose and verse to journals and reviews and soliciting the protection of wealthy patrons. In 1712 Gay was employed as secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth and later held similar posts with the Earl of Clarendon and the Duke and Duchess of Queensbeny. In 1714 he published The Shepherd's Week, a series of six eclogues burlesquing the pastoral poetry of Ambrose Philips. These poems, which established his literary reputation, were followed by a farce, What d"ye Call it (1715); Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716), a sprightly and colorful mock epic; and a comedy, Three Hours after Marriage (1717), which he wrote in collaboration with Pope and Arbuthnot. John Gay made £1,000 through the publication of his collected poems (1720) but lost it all by speculation in the South Sea Bubble. In 1724 he produced a tragedy, The Captives, and in 1727 published the first of his popular versified Pables. His crowning achievement, The Beggar's Opera (1728), was a boisterous musical comedy which for a season drove the Italian opera out of England. Polly (1729), a sequel, enjoyed success in book form but the stage production was prohibited for political reasons. Among Gay's later works were a libretto for Handel's Acis and Galatea (1732), an opera, Achilles (1733), and a second series of Fables (1738). His most familiar poems today are the ballads "Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan" and " 'Twas when the seas were roaring" and his own epitaph: "Life is a jest and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it."

Supernova I987A

2012-01-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

Astronomers around the world were excited when, on 24 February 1987, a new naked-eye star suddenly appeared within the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was the first supernova seen with the unaided eye since 1604, reaching magnitude 2.9 at its peak and remaining visible for several months. The object was originally a massive blue star called Sanduleak -69 202.
The star actually exploded some 165,000 years ago, the light having taken that long to reach us. The light was accompanied by a burst of neutrinos—tiny, elusive particles. Scientists had predicted that these would be produced in very large numbers during a supernova explosion.
The study of SN 1987A continues today, with rings of light, shown in the illustration of the Hubble Space Telescope image (right), being the most recent surprises in the ongoing tale of the supernova's discovery.

Who was James Hutton?

2012-01-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

James Hutton (1726-1797)

James Hutton was a Scottish geologist and physician, became famous for two theories on the origin of the Earth. He is called the father of modern geology.
According to one of Hutton's theories, heat played an important part in the formation of the Earth. Hutton believed that rocks were formed from a molten mass. Most other scientists thought water had once covered the Earth and that rocks were formed when minerals settled at the bottom of the water.
Hutton also theorized that the Earth had changed gradually by natural processes and would continue to change through the same processes. Other scientists believed the Earth was completely formed about 6,000 years ago and that only rare catastrophes could change its features.

Some facts about Balls

2012-01-24T15:30:00.000-08:00

One of man's oldest toys is a simple, round object called a ball. The first balls were rounded stones, which were rolled or tossed. Thousands of years ago, balls were used as weapons. They were thrown at enemies and game animals.
Balls are rolled, tossed, and hit in many games. Baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis, bowling, football, volleyball, billiards, golf, and many other games use balls of some kind. We usually think of a ball as perfectly spherícal, or round. This is not always so. A football, for example, is oval instead of round.
Balls can be made of almost any material, including snow. The Aztec and Mayan Indians played an old game like basketball with a rubber ball. American Indians played lacrosse and other games with balls made of animal hides. Animal skins still provide the covering of some kinds of balls. Horsehide is the outer surface of most baseballs. A football is often referred to as a "pigskin," although pigskin is no longer used in footballs. Plastics are widely used in making different kinds of balls. Others are made of solid wood and rubber. Rubber balls are lots of fun to play with, because they bounce.
There are many sizes and weights of balls. Maybe you have seen a big, heavy, sand-filled "medicine" ball in a gym. Compare that with a lightweight ping-pong ball, which you can blow across a table with a deep breath. One of the smallest balls is the kind used in a game of jacks. It must be tiny enough to fit in a child's hand. It must also be bouncy enough to give the player time to pick up the jacks.

Who was Hans Christian Oersted?

2012-01-24T09:55:00.000-08:00

Hans Christian Oersted was the Danish physicist and chemist who founded the branch of science called electromagnetism. Electromagnetism deals with magnetic fields developed by electricity.
During an evening lecture at the University of Copenhagen where Oersted served as professor, he accidentally discovered that a magnetic needle was deflected by an electrical current. This discovery established him as one of the outstanding physicists of his age. After experimenting, Oersted discovered that every conductor which carries an electrical current is surrounded by a magnetic field. This experiment, now known as the "Oersted Experiment," proved that electricity can produce magnetism. In 1934 the "Oersted" was adopted as the unit of
measurement of the strength of a magnetic field.

Lemures (mythology)

2012-01-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

Among the ancient Romans, Lemures (singular lemur) is a term applied to departed spirits, especially those of ancestors who hovered about during the night. Probably the word was derived from the festival Lemuria held 9, 11 and 13 May, when at midnight the father of the family, with special ceremonies, nine times threw black beans over his head, thus banishing the spirits from the household for another year.
The Lemures inspired Linnaeus's Modern Latin backformation Lemur to characterise the "ghostly stare", nocturnal habits and unearthly calls of the infraorder. In Goethe's Faust, a chorus of Lemurs who serve Mephistopheles dig Faustus' grave.

Thomas Henry Huxley

2012-01-23T07:21:00.000-08:00

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) was a famous zoologist, lecturer, and writer. He was one of the first to be convinced by Charles Darwin's analysis of organic evolution, and he extended and defended it. Through his lectures, writings, and committees, Huxley helped advance scientific thought.
His writings include Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863), Critiques and Addresses (1873), and A Manual of the Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals (1877). His essay "On a Piece of Chalk" (1868) and his essay demonstrating changes in the feet of fossil horses are outstanding.
Many of Huxley's expressions became famous. He introduced the word agnostic to describe one who believes that the existence of God or a spiritual world cannot be proved. He coined the word biogenesis to emphasize that life arises only from previous life.
Huxley was born near London, and studied by himself until he entered medical school. He became a surgeon in the British navy and spent four years in the Indian Ocean and East Indies. He wrote a pioneering account of jellyfishes, and returned to England to find that he had become famous as a zoologist. From 1854 to 1885, he taught natural history at the Royal School of Mines. He served as president of the Royal Society from 1881 to 1885.

What is Flemish?

2012-01-23T02:17:00.000-08:00

Flemish is a language belonging to the Germanic subdivisión of the Indo-European language group. It is spoken by about 5,000,000 inhabitants of northern Belgium and by an additional 200,000 people in northwestern France. Flemish is actually a variant of Dutch, to which it is closely related, and along with French, it is one of Belgium's two official languages.

The Lost Lemuria

2012-01-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Lemuria is a name given by Haeckel to a vast area assumed to exist in past ages over the area of the present Africa, Indian Ocean and Malayan Archipelago, on the hypothesis that the existence of such a continent was necessary to explain the peculiar present distribution of the lemurs and other phenomena of geographical distribution. The discovery of the remains of lemurs in America and Europe rendered such hypothesis futile, and the idea was soon abandoned.

Classifyng the stars

2012-01-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

Seen through the telescope, the silvery stars turn into jewels of every color known. Since the glow of a star is from heat, te color depends on its temperature. Red stas are relatively cool, with surface temperatures of about 6,000 °F. Yellow stars, like our Sun, are hotter by thousands of degrees, and blue stars are still hotter. The hottest ultraviolet star may be more that 100.000 °F.
Relationships exist between tbe color and size of stars and their age and Iocation in tbe galaxies. Stars tend to fall into two great categories called Population I and Population II. Population I consists of stars in the arms of spiral galaxies and in irregular galaxies like the Malleganic Clouds. Population II consists of stars in the nuclei of spiral galaxies, in elliptical galaxies, and in globular clusters.
The biggest, brightest stars in Population I are blue giants, which spread a blue radiance around them. The biggest, brightest stars of Population II are red giants, which give their surroundings a reddish-orange tint.
In Population I, the smaller stars are red and relatively cool — that is, cool for stars. The larger ones are blue and hot. Until a few decades ago, astronomers believed that the bigger stars are, the hotter they are. Then, as telescopes probed deeper into space, new populations of stars were found. Out in remote globular clusters and still more distant galaxies, the giant stars were red and cool. And even in our own galaxv some stars have been discovered that change periodically in size and brightness. These are the so-called pulsating, or variable, stars. Some change regularly; some are irregular.
As nuclear physics developed, astronomers learned more about processes that go on in the stars. Then it became clear that different types of stars represent different stages in star evolution. Apparently Population I stars are in earlier stages of their evolution, and Population II stars are probably in later stages.

George Simon Ohm

2012-01-21T16:39:00.000-08:00

Georg Ohm (1797-1854)

Georg Simon Ohm was a German physicist who is best known f or Ohm's Law of electric conduction. This law states that the current, I, that flows in a circuit multiplied by the amount of resistance, R, is equal to the applied voltage, E. The law may be stated in symbols as E = I x R. The ohm, the unit of electrical resistance, is named in his honor. He is also known for work in mathematics and acoustics.
Ohm was born in Erlanger, Germany, on March 16, 1787. After attending the local university, he was, in 1817, appointed professor of mathematics at the Jesuits' College at Cologne. He remained there until 1833 when he resigned to join the faculty of the Polytechnic School of Nuremberg. In 1849, he accepted an appointment as professor of mathematics at Munich. Ohm's numerous writings were of somewhat inferior quality. One exception was a pamphlet published in Berlin in 1827 which contained a summary of what is now known as Ohm's Law. His work was coldly received by his fellow scientists, and Georg Ohm was so deeply hurt that he resigned his position at the Jesuits' College, Cologne. His work began to be recognized, however, and in 1841 he was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in London. One year later he was made a foreign member of the Society.

What is the Ohm?
The ohm is the unit of resistance to the passage of an electric current. The ohm is the resistance causing a potential drop of one absolute volt when a steady current of one absolute ampere flows through it.

What is Frustation?

2012-01-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

When an individual is blocked in the realization or expression of his drives he feels frustrated. The drives may be physiological (such as: for food, activity, rest, comfort, and sex) or psychological (such as desire for security, recognition, mastery, new experiences, affection, etc.). All of these drives, in the course of experience, often are organized into habits, attitudes, and ambitions. Any one or all may be blocked from salisfaction by environmental obstacles, personal defects, and inner conflicts. Obstacles presented by the environmenl are such as absence of food, opportunity for rest or sex expression, and laws and customs which are loo strictly enforced. Personal defects refer lo ill health, bodily blemishes, and lack of intelligence and social and manual skills.
A common reaction to frustration is anger or rage, as shown by an infant when he is restrained from movement. Adults also tend lo become enraged when their freedom is abridged. Another reaction to frustration is fear, which causes individuals lo withdraw and submit when the restraint is overpowering.
The intelligent and mature person will stop to reason when confronted with a frustration. He will look for new methods of satisfying his desires.

What is a Hyacinth?

2012-01-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

The hyacinth is a favorite spring flower of the lily family. It originated in Africa and Asia, and was brought to Europe in the early 1500's. It has been a popular plant in Europe for centuries and is still a garden favorite everywhere. The bell-shaped flowers of blue, pink, white, yellow, or purple, bloom in March and April on stalks which grow from 6 to 18 inches high.
Hyacinths grow from bulbs in open beds, hothouses, and in the home. When raised in the open, they need rich, well-drained soil. The bulbs are planted between September and November.
Early in the spring, the flowers appear. Gardeners usually tie the stems to slender stakes to protect them. In summer, after the leaves wither, gardeners dig the bulbs and store them in dry soil or sand. Florists pot the bulbs early in September to force the plants to blossom by Christmas.
The soil and climate of The Netherlands provide an especially favorable place for growing flowers from bulbs. The Dutch plant hundreds of acres of hyacinths every year near Haarlem. They ship the bulbs to many parts of the world

Christiaan Huygens

2012-01-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, discovered the polarization of light, and investigated and developed the wave theory of light. He coined the word ether for the medium in which light waves were then assumed to travel. Huygens developed an improved method of grinding telescope lenses in 1655. He built the first powerful telescopes, which made possible his discovery of a satellite and ring of Saturn. He was the first to use a pendulum to regulate a clock. He also invented the micrometer, an instrument used to measure extremely small distances.
Huygens was born at The Hague, The Netherlands. He studied law and mathematics at Leiden. In 1663, he became a member of The Royal Society, England's oldest scientific society. From 1666 to 1681, Huygens worked in París at the invitation of Ring Louis XIV of France.

Why did the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse?

2012-01-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

A marching band can create rhythmic vibrations even when it isn't playing music. Sometimes you can feel the ground víbrate from marching feet. Do you know why bands and military units don't march in step across suspension bridges?

Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse

The rhythm of the marching can cause the bridge to víbrate. If the frequency of the vibration caused by the marching matches the natural frequency of the bridge, resonance can occur. Resonance can cause the bridge to move up and down until its structure weakens and collapses.
English cavalry troops marching across a foot-bridge in 1831 caused the bridge to collapse when they marched in rhythm with the natural frequency of the bridge. Winds can also cause vibrations in suspension bridges. On November 7, 1940, vibrations caused by a mild gale produced resonance in the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the state of Washington. In a few hours, the flexible suspension bridge was torn apart and collapsed. Engineers now design suspension bridges with heavier, less-flexible roadbeds that aren't affected by wind.

Tuning forks

2012-01-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

A struck bell, a plucked guitar string, and a dropped table knife will vibrate and make sounds. Each object vibrates at a particular frequency, known as its natural frequency. The frequency of a sound wave results in a particular pitch. The natural frequency of a small bell is higher than that of a large bell. When struck, the smaller bell will ring at a higher pitch.

Tuning forks are used to tune musical instruments. The musician plays a note on his instrument and compares its pitch to the pitch made by the tuning fork. He adjusts his instrument so the pitch of each note matches the pitch made by the tuning fork for that note.

When the bass player plays at the natural frequency of the tuning fork, the vibrations create resonance in the tuning fork. The vibration of an object at its natural frequency is called resonance. You can experiment with an instrument to find the natural frequency of an unlabeled tuning fork by playing different notes and seeing which one causes the tuning fork to resonate.

Finding the natural frequency of a tuning fork is just one example of resonance. Many objects have a natural frequency that is easily matched by other vibrating objects. The windows in our home rattle when the sound given off by a passing truck matches their natural frequency.

What is an abominable Snowman?

2012-01-18T21:07:00.000-08:00

Explorers in the Himalaya Mountains of Asia tell stories about a strange giant that is supposed to live high up on the cold, snowy peaks. Nobody has ever come close to this mysterious creature, which is called the Abominable Snowman. Some people say they have found its huge footprints. Most scientists doubt that the Snowman is a real animal. But others think it might just possibly be a leftover — a kind of man whose ancestors lived in caves thousands and thousands of years ago.

Shortage of coins

2012-01-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

When the Italian small-change coins spiccioli began to vanish in 1965, some said the lightweight aluminum pieces were being collected by the Japanese for cheap watch cases. Others thought the coins were disappearing into cloth-covered buttons or, perhaps, simply blowing away.

In fact, the disappearance of spiccioli began in 1964 when, faced by soaring double-digit inflation, the Italian government ceased minting the silver 500-lira piece, which had become more valuable as metal than as money. Italians were expected to make change with smaller aluminum coins worth 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 lire. But the national supply of small change was swiftly devoured by coin-operated vending machines, by tourists going home with pocketfuls of nearly worthless foreign coins, and by work stoppages at the Italian mint.

As a result, getting change while shopping became a major problem. The post office tried to solve it by giving out stamps worth a few centesimi (100 to the lira), but a huge envelope was needed to accommodate the numerous stamps required even for local delivery. Butchers passed out eggs as a fragile alternative to coins. News vendors, given 100-lira pieces for 90-lira newspapers, made change with candy valued at 10 lire, and many storekeepers dealt out such differences in the form of nougat and licorice.
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Is the story of the apple falling really true?

2012-01-18T05:28:00.000-08:00

Shortly after finishing college, while living on his family's farm, English mathematician Isaac Newton watched an apple fall from a tree and wondered if the force that caused it to fall, gravity, also applied to orbiting bodies in space, such as the Moon. Why did they not fall away, instead of remaining in an orbital path? Prior to this time, gravity had been thought of as a force that only functioned on Earth. Newton explained the movement of orbiting planets as the result of motion along a straight line combined with the gravitational pull of the Sun. Newton put aside his notes for seventeen years, until astronomer Edmond Halley convinced him to write up his results. Three years after that, Newton's book was published.

The Mayan calendar

2012-01-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

A sun calendar that was used in past times was that of the Mayas. It probably goes back to the year 580 B.C. According to a renowned American archaeologist, Sylvanus Griswold Morley, it was the first seasonal and agricultural calendar in America.

The Mayan calendar was similar in some respects to that of the Egyptians. It consisted of 360 days, with a period of 5 days, necessary to complete the year, added as a short month. As we saw, the Egyptians dedicated the 5 extra days in the year to the gods, but the Mayas considered them as evil days upon which no work could be done, no journey undertaken and no marriage performed. As in Egypt, arrangements for the extra days were left to the priesthood.

The Mayan calendar was arranged differently from that of the Egyptians. The year had 18 months of 20 days. The 20 days within each month were divided into four 5-day series, corresponding to our weeks; each day had its own name. The 20 days of the month began with a cipher; henee the days were numbered from O to 19 inclusive, not from 1 to 20 inclusive, as we would count the days in our months.

Inserted with the Mayan sun calendar was another imposed by the priests, who used a time system of their own for ceremonial rites and purposes. This was the permutation system, or tzolkin. In this system there were 20 months of 13 days each existing within the framework of the 18-month 20-day year. It was as if we were to have a 260-day year start on January 1. The 260th day would correspond to September 17 : the first day of the new 260-day year could then correspond to September 18.

Apparent magnitude of well-known stars and other heavenly bodies

2012-01-17T07:22:00.000-08:00

In the second century B.C., the Greek astronomer Hipparchus arranged the stars in six grades or classes, of brightness, or apparent magnitude. (As applied to a star, the word "magnitude" has to do with brightness and not with size.) The brightest stars were put in the first grade, the next brightest stars in the second grade and so on. Hipparchus' classification was adopted and improved by Ptolemy of Alexandria in the second century A.D. Our present system of apparent magnitudes is based on the work of these men, though the light values assigned to the different magnitudes have been greatly refined. In the case of the heavenly bodies that are brighter than the stars of the first magnitude, each increasing stage of brightness above 1 is indicated by the appropriate numeral (0, 1, 2, 3 and so on) preceded by a minus sign.

Sun —26.7
Moon —12.5 at brightest
Venus —4.3 at brightest
Mars —2.8 at brightest
Sirius A —1.5
Júpiter —1.3
Canopus -0.9
Alpha Centauri A 0.33
Vega 0.1
Capella 0.2
Arcturus 0.2
Rigel 0.3
Procyon A 0.5
Betelgeuse 0.9 (variable)
Altair 0.9
Saturn 1.
Mercury 1.
Aldebaran 1.1
Antares 1.2
Spica 1.2
Pollux 1.2
Fomalhaut 1.3
Deneb 1.3
Regulus 1.3
Castor 1.6
Bellatrix 1.7
Mira Ceti 2.2 (variable)
Shedir 2.3
Polaris 2.3
Mizar 2.4
Alcyone 3.
Alcor 4.
Uranus 6.

The Nobel Prize

2012-01-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

Alfred Nobel (1833-96), the Swedish engineer who invented dynamite, left $9,000,000 in a fund to provide yearly awards for men and women whose work has benefited mankind. There are five Nobel Prizes—in physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and for the promotion of peace. The physics and chemistry prizes are awarded by the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm; the medicine prizes by the Caroline Medical-Chirurgical Institute in Stockholm; the literature prizes by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm; the peace prizes by the Swedish Parliament. The names of candidates are submitted by persons qualified in the various fields. Although the winners are generally announced earlier in the year. the actual ceremony of awarding the prizes takes place annually on the anniversary of Nobel's death, December 10. A gold medal and a diploma accompany the money.

Missing Money

2012-01-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

Billions of dollars worth of U.S. coins and bills disappear from circulation annually—more than $70 million in pennies alone in a typical year. Some of this vanished money simply gets lost, or is worn out, added to collections, or squirreled away in cookie jars and piggy banks. Some of it languishes forgotten in the pockets of unworn clothing or lurks in the obscure corners of handbags, upholstery, drawers, and closets. But much of it slips away into a shady labyrinth of international finance designed to evade taxes and "launder" illicitly earned money, making it seem to have a legitimate source. This practice is so pervasive that U.S. Treasury officials estimate they can physically locate only about 20 percent of the bills they print. Much of the remaining 80 percent presumably disappears into the global laundering apparatus.

Cassiopeia A

2012-01-16T10:39:00.000-08:00

When Cassiopeia A (3C 461) exploded as a supernova some 9,700 years ago, a gigantic, circular shell of gas raced out into space. Today, this still-expanding supernova remnant is too faint to see with amateur equipment, but its powerful energy is detectable at radio wavelengths. The radio output emission is created by high-speed electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines as the expanding cloud collides with thin gas between the stars.
Radio images of the cloud, the brightest radio source outside of the Solar System, show gas racing away from the spot where the star exploded. By calculating this speed and the distance traveled by the gas since the explosion, astronomers estímate that the light from the explosion reached Earth around 1680, creating a 5th magnitude star. No record exists of anyone noticing this short-lived supernova in Cassiopeia.

Who was Augustin Jean Fresnel?

2012-01-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

Augustin Jean Fresnel was a French engineer and physicist, was born in Broglie, Normandy, and studied at the École Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées. After spending several years as a government engineer in various parts of France, Fresnel lost his post because he declared his allegiance to the Bourbons when Napoleon escaped from Elba. Through the influence of Dominique Arago, he subsequently became secretary of the government's lighthouse department in Paris. There he invented the lighthouse lens which bears his name, introduced revolving lights, and designed the Fresnel concentric wick, which greatly enhanced the brilliancy of lighthouse lamps.
Fresnel extended his researches to the kinematics and the dynamics of light and, independently of the investigations conducted by Thomas Young, discovered the phenomenon of interference, or effect caused by the meeting of two beams of monochromatic light. Fresnel insured acceptance of the undulatory theory of light when he introduced the idea that the vibrations of the ether are transverse to the directions of the beams of light.
The validity of the undulatory theory was further confirmed by Fresnel's investigations of the modifications in interference brought about by polarized light.

Who was Girolamo Frescobaldi?

2012-01-15T15:31:00.000-08:00

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1644) was an Italian musical composer and organist, was born in Ferrara. Frecobaldi early gained a reputation as a singer, and later as an organist, and in 1614 was appointed organist at St. Peter's, Rome. This position he held, with a short interval of absence in Florence, until his death. Frescobaldi's compositions, which are numerous, include both instrumental and vocal pieces; among them a collection of five-part madrigals, Ricercari et cantoni francesi, Capricci sopra diversi soggetti and Arie musicali a piu voci.

Hecate (mythology)

2012-01-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, Hecate was one of the deities of the lower world. She was the daughter of Titan and Night. Her worship was connected chiefly with caves. Even the temples built in her honor were placed at the entrance of a subterranean chamber.
Hecate was intrusted by Zeus with the magic powers of heaven, earth, and sea. She might be cruel, or she might be kind. She had the power of bestowing good and of averting evil, or of bringing misfortune. People of rank erected her image in front of their houses. It was placed frequently at the crossings of roads where, at the new moon, offerings of food were presented, and left for the consumption of poor people.
In statuary, Hecate appears in a hideous form. Three heads and three pairs of arms spring from the same body. Serpents issue from the drapery at her feet and are twined in her hair. She bears a lighted torch and a sword in her hand, and is accompanied by two black, shaggy dogs. When placed at a crossroad, the three heads were usually those of a horse, a lion, and a dog. The three heads are doubtless symbolical of the three-fold nature which was ascribed to this mysterious goddess, her powers extending to the heavens, to the earth, and to the under world. It was probably on this account that she became variously identified with Selene, goddess of the moon, with Diana, goddess of the chase, and with Persephone, goddess of the lower world.
As a deity, Hecate was the goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. It was she who sent demons and phantoms to hover about spots where murder or other hideous crime had been committed. In Macbeth, it may be remembered, the guilty king speaks of "pale Hecate's offerings."

Hector, the Trojan prince

2012-01-14T19:17:00.000-08:00

Hector, the hero of the Trojan army. He was the son of King Priam and Hecuba. His wife was Andromache, the daughter of the king of Thebes. While Achilles, the Greek, was sulking in his tent, refusing to fight, Hector slew Archilles' dearest friend, Patroclus. This aroused Achilles, who presented himself at the head of his men and rushed into the thick of the fray. Achilles slew Hector with his own hand, tied him by the feet to the tail of his chariot, and dragged him three times around the walls of Troy.
In his grief the aged King Priam went in person to the Greek camp and begged the boon of his son's body. This he received and took back to the beleaguered city, where Hector was buried with great pomp. Our account of Hector is derived from Homer's Iliad. Homer writes as a Greek, yet the valor and manly qualities of the Trojan Hector arouse the poet's admiration.

Who was Black Hawk?

2012-01-14T17:55:00.000-08:00

The chief named Black Hawk (1767-1838) led the Sauk and Fox Indians in Illinois. In 1804, the Sauk and Fox tribes agreed to give their lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States. But Black Hawk thought the agree-ment was unfair. He and about 500 warriors joined the British in fighting against the U.S. during the War of 1812.
Most of the Sauk and Fox Indians had left their homes and settled in a reservation west of the Mississippi by 1830. Black Hawk still refused to move. When white settlers began to take over the land, he led his men in a rebellion known as the Black Hawk War. After several victories, the Indians suffered a painful defeat in 1832. Black Hawk finally surrendered and was sent to live on a reservation in lowa. The failure of his rebellion marked the end of Indian settlement in Illinois.

Otto von Bismarck

2012-01-14T05:36:00.000-08:00

The man who gathered many small kingdoms into modern, powerful Germany was Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898). He was born in Prussia, now northern Germany. Bismarck studied law at the universities of Gottingen and Berlin. After serving in the Prussian legislature for 11 years, he became ambassador, first to Russia, then to France.
In 1862, he became prime minister of Prussia. Prussia was then one of 39 weak German states. Bismarck wanted to unite all the states into one strong nation. He organized 22 states into the North German Confederation, in 1867, with Prussia as leader.
To unite the rest of Germany, Bismarck steered Prussia into three wars. First, Prussia fought with Austria against Denmark. Then Prussia turned against and defeated Austria. Prussia's war with France, from 1870 to 1871, established the German Empire. The German states not in the confederation helped Prussia win, then found themselves part of the empire.
Wilhelm I became emperor. But Bismarck became chancellor (chief minister of state) and had all the power. He ruled for 19 years, and was called the "iron chancellor," because he allowed no one to disagree with him, and because he said that only "iron and blood' could unite Germany. In 1888, Wilhelm II became emperor. He was jealous of Bismarck's power, which he wanted for himself. So he forced Bismarck to retire in 1890.

How is astrology used today?

2012-01-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

The most popular form of modern astrology is called natal (birth) astrology. Natal astrology involves plotting the positions of the sun, moon, planets, and stars at the exact time of a person's birth, creating a chart called a horoscope. Astrologers believe that the horoscope provides information about that person's Signs of the Zodiac. traits and the sequence of his or her life events. When casting a horoscope, an astrologer maps the planets and stars against the backdrop of the zodiac. The zodiac breaks the celestial sphere into twelve regions, each one defined by a constellation residing within it. The twelve zodiac signs are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.

What is a Genius?

2012-01-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

A genius is a person who is far more gifted in some way than most people. He may be an artist or a scientist or an inventor. He may write music or poetry. He may be gifted in still some other way. Geniuses are often so deeply interested in one thing that they do not pay much attention to anything else. Many of them are thought of as odd.
Albert Einstein was surely a genius. Much of what he thought and wrote has to do with great problems about the universe. His ideas helped to bring on the Atomic Age. Thomas Edison earned the name of genius by his many inventions. Newton, Galileo, Mozart, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci are a few of the other geniuses the world has known.

Egypt, "The gift of the Nile"

2012-01-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

Nile river

Many centuries after the early period of Egyptian history, a Greek historian named Herodotus wrote of his travels in Egypt. "All Egypt," he said, "is the gift of the Nile." Herodotus wrote accurately, for he was describing a remarkable feature of Egyptian geography. Each year, from June to October, rain and melting snow from the mountains at the source of the Nile cause the river to overflow and spread out over the flatland of the southern Nile Valley. The flood reaches its highest level at the beginning of September. As the flood recedes, the gentle slope of the land allows the water to drain off gradually. A layer of silt, or fertile soil, which the river has carried along in its flood, is left behind.
From earliest times Egyptian farmers have planned their work according to the flood. They know when it will come every year. They harvest their crops before it begins, then wait for the water to soak the hard, dry earth before it drains off and leaves its new, fertile soil. There is little or no rainfall in Egypt, so the flood moisture is sufficient for only one planting. Early in their history, however, the Egyptians learned to irrigate the land by using water from the Nile and carrying it to the fields in short canals. Then they could plant and harvest two or even three crops a year.
You can easily see the importance of this regular flooding of the Nile. Each year the valley receives a fresh layer of soil. Because of this, the land of the Nile Valley has been farmed continuously for more than 6,000 years. And it is still farmed today.

Hypnotism

2012-01-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

Hypnotism is an artificial sleep or artificial somnambulism. It resembles sleep in that the person hypnotized appears unconscious, is insensible to most sense impressions, and, on being aroused, remembers little or nothing of what has occurred while he was in the hypnotic state. Hypnosis is, of course, an abnormal condition. Hypnotism closely resembles mesmerism, and the terms are used often synonymously; but hypnotism, as understood at the present time, differs theoretically from mesmerism, whose supporters claimed that the mesmeric condition was induced upon the subject by an emanation, called animal magnetism, from the person of the operator. Of late years extended researches in the subject of hypnotism have satisfied investigators that no magnetism or force of any kind is transmitted to the subject from the operator, but that hypnosis is a mental condition purely. It is claimed even that it is an entirely natural condition. In hypnotic sleep, while apparently unconscious and to a degree insensible, the mind of the subject is more or less active, and the nervous system keenly susceptible to certain impressions. The operator controls to a great extent the volition of the subject. He may influence him to play an assumed part. the subject acting apparently in the firm belief that he is in reality the individual he has been told to represent. It is, however, an entirely incorrect use of the word, hypnotism, to apply it to the mental influence exerted or thought to be exerted by one individual over another while both are in a normal condition. Hypnotism implies sleep. The human mind is always more or less susceptible to suggestion. In ths hypnotic state, it is peculiarly so. When awake, the will controls measurably the effect of any suggestion the mind receives. While in the hypnotic state the will is dormant, and the suggestion seems to make its impression without any influence from the will of the subject.
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Who was Hyperion?

2012-01-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, Hyperion was one of the Titans, son of Uranus (the sky) and Gaea (the earth). He became the father of Helios (the sun), Selene (the moon), and Eos (the dawn). Hyperion was the original sun god and is represented as gloriously bright and beautiful. In astronomy, the name Hyperion is given to one of the satellites of Saturn. Longfellow has given the name Hyperion to a romance which he published in 1839. It is an account of the travels of a young man through foreign countries, and is interspersed with legends, poems, and philosophical discourses.

How does astrology compare with astronomy?

2012-01-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

In ancient times, men were filled with wonder by the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. They came up with creative explanations for what they saw in the sky. Ancient astronomers, who charted the stars and planets night after night, invested the celestial objects with a host of god-like qualities. They named planets and star groupings after the gods of their particular religión and felt that some of these bodies were, indeed, gods. In this way, the fields of astronomy and astrology advanced together for several centuries. The birth of modern astronomy in the early 1500s was the point at which the two paths went their separate ways. Once Nicholas Copernicus determined that the Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun and Galileo Galilei crafted the first telescopes, the skies became much less mysterious. Those who held to the mystical beliefs about the cosmos continued on their own separate quest for greater understanding.

What is Automation?

2012-01-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Automation seems to be a very complicated process. But really it is just a way of having machines do work without human operators controlling the machines every moment they are running. In other words, an automated system is a system that works by itself. Every automated system has two parts— a machine (or many machines) that does the work, and another machine that controls the first one.

The simplest automated system is the light bulb in your refrigerator. The light bulb does the work— lighting up the refrigerator. The little button that pops out when you open the door is the control. It is connected to the light and it "tells" the light what to do.

Another automated system is a mechanical dishwasher. Inside the cabinet is a machine that washes the dishes, rinses them, and dries them. Also inside the cabinet is a device that "tells" the machine what to do and when to do it. What good would it do if the machine dried the dishes before it washed them?
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How little Jack Horner became a big owner?

2012-01-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

According to legend, the original Horner was steward to Richard Whiting, the last of the abbots of Glastonbury. In the 1530's, the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it is said that the abbot, hoping to placate Henry VIII, sent His Majesty an enormous Christmas pie containing the deeds of 12 manors. The task of carrying the pie to London was entrusted to Horner, who managed to open the pie and extract the deeds of the Manor of Mells in Somerset—presumably the "plum" mentioned in this rhyme:

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner

Eating a Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb,

And pulled out a plum,

And said "What a good boy am I"

Certainly, one Thomas Horner did assume ownership of Mells, but both his descendants and the present owner of the house, the Earl of Oxford and Asquith, claim that the rhyme is a slander. Horner, they say, bought the manor from the King; his name wasTom and not Jack; and there is evidence that the rhyme existed before the Tudors.

What are Seyfert galaxies?

2012-01-10T03:28:00.000-08:00

Seyfert galaxies are spiral-shaped galaxies characterized by an exceptionally bright nucleus that produce spectral line emission from highly ionized gas. Like the Milky Way, they consist of a central disk of stars with starry arms that extend outward and wrap around the disk like a pinwheel, but Seyfert galaxies display very faint arms and a very bright nucleus. The nuclei, in addition to emitting radiation in visible light wavelengths, also give off infrared radiation, radio waves, and X-rays. They contained very hot gases: hydrogen, ionized oxygen, nitrogen, neon, sulphur, iron, and argon. These gases are prone to explosions, which cause the nucleus to rotate much faster and more violently than the rest of the galaxy. Seyfert galaxies greatly outshine the other galaxies in a cluster. Some even approach the brightness of quasars, the brightest and most distant objects from Earth. The nuclei of Seyfert galaxies are also similar to quasars in that both types of objects emit radiation from all across the electromagnetic spectrum. This pattern has led some astronomers to theorize that the nuclei of Seyfert galaxies may be faint quasars. Another recent theory about Seyfert galaxies is that they are a stage of development through which all giant spirals pass. If this is true, our own Milky Way galaxy may spend 10 percent of its existence as a Seyfert galaxy.
Seyfert galaxies were named after Carl Keenan Seyfert, the astronomer who first identified the class in 1943.

The first human heart transplant

2012-01-09T16:00:00.000-08:00

Christiaan Barnard was the South African surgeon who performed the first human heart transplant. This historic operation took place on December 3, 1967. Barnard removed the healthy heart of a young woman who had been fatally wounded in an automobile accident. He transplanted her heart into the chest of Louis Washkansky, a 55-year-old man whose heart was failing. Washkansky lived for 18 days with the transplanted heart.
Although Washkansky died of pneumonía soon after the transplant, the operation was considered a success—Washkansky's new heart beat strongly until the end. Barnard performed his second heart transplant operation a month after the first one. This time, the recipient of the transplanted heart lived for 18 months. Barnard continued doing transplant operations with critically ill patients. His innovative surgical procedures included another first. In 1974, he transplanted a second heart in a human being. The hearts were linked together, forming a kind of double pump to circulate blood throughout the body.
Christiaan Barnard was born on November 8, 1922, in a small town called Beaufort West, South Africa. His father was a minister and the family was quite poor. Barnard's mother had high expectations of her children and urged them to work hard and strive to be the best in their classes. Barnard studied hard and was admitted to medical school in Cape Town, South Africa. He received advanced training in heart surgery at the University of Minnesota in the United States. It was in 1958 that Barnard returned to South Africa and introduced the revolutionary new technique of operating directly on the heart—the procedure called open-heart surgery.
Barnard retired as a surgeon in 1983. The effects of chronic arthritis eventually made it difficult for him to operate.

What does fin de siècle mean?

2012-01-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

Fin de siècle is a term used to characterize the decade of the 1890's. The phrase is French and means "the end of the century." Fin-de-siècle writers and artists rejected the Victorian tradition and tried to find new methods and aims for their work. They believed that a work of art should be valued for its own sake, rather than for its moral point. The "decadent" poets, such as Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde, were particularly fascinated by the strange beauty of death and decay. Another fin-de-siècle literary current was the Realistic movement, as illustrated by the plays of George Bernard Shaw.

How do we measure energy?

2012-01-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

We measure energy by the amount of work it does. We measure it in foot-pounds. For example, 20 foot-pounds is the amount of energy it would take to lift 2 pounds 10 feet, or 10 pounds 2 feet, or 5 pounds 4 feet. We also measure energy in calories. A "small calorie," the kind people count when they are dieting, is a thousand times bigger — so a man on a strict diet might eat only enough food to give him 3,000,000 foot-pounds of energy a day. We also measure energy in joules, ergs, horsepower-hours, kilowatt-hours, and all sorts of units, depending on the kind of work we mean.

Heinrich Heine

2012-01-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

H. Heine

Heinrich Heine, (1797-1856) was a German poet, born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents; studied in Bonn, Gottingen, and Berlin. His first important work, Reisebilder, appeared in 1826, and his greatest, the Buch der Lieder, was published in the next year. Heine traveled widely in Europe, and finally settled in Paris, where he became intimate with the Romantics, including Víctor Hugo, De Musset, and Chopin. He wrote of them in Die Romantische Schule, 1836. His works were now banned in Germany, and in reply to this he wrote German Philosophy and Literature, an essay, and Deutschland, 1844, a satire. In his best work, his lyrics, he wavered between sentimentality and cynicism, but he had a keen appreciation of emotion and a perfect style for the expression of it. The lyrics have been frequently translated, and set to music by Schumann, Brahms, and Grieg, among other composers.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

2012-01-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, (1770-1831) was a German philosopher, born in Stuttgart; educated in theology at University of Tübingen. Taught at Univ. of Jena, 1801-16, where he worked out his philosophical system; professor at Univ. of Heidelberg 1816-18; then professor at Berlin. Hegel was the last of the four great German idealist-philosophers of that period, the others being Kant, Fichte, and Schelling. Hegel's system is a culmination of the idealistic philosophy of Kant. To Hegel, the world is a world of reason, reason being the essential nature of reality. It is philosophy's task to set forth this rationality in a systematic, comprehensive way. His system has three main divisions: the logic; the philosophy of nature; the philosophy of spirit, or mind. Hegel's first important treatise, the Phenomenology of Mind appeared in 1807. His Science of Logic, 1808 analyzes and develops the conceptions underlying the various forms of experience by a 'dialectical method.' Other works include the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences and the Philosophy of Right. Most of his works are available in English translations. His theories have had a profound influence on German philosophy and also on British and American thought.

What is Hedonism?

2012-01-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

Hedonism is the philosophic theory which holds pleasure to be the supreme good. The ancient Greek school of Aristippus and the Cyrenaics stressed the immediate happiness of the individual; the Epicurean school modified this by insisting that some consideration for others was necessary to happiness. Utilitarianism, a modern form of hedonism, has as its aim the collective happiness of men, the greatest good for the greatest number. Its leading exponents are: J. S. Mill, Bentham, Hume, and Sidgwick.

What does Hegira mean?

2012-01-07T05:20:00.000-08:00

Hegira, or Hijra, is a term referring to the flight of Muhammad from Mecca, in June, 622 A.D. After its flight he became ruler of Yathrib, later called Medina, and there laid the foundation of Islam. The Moslem calendar begins with that year.
Technically, the first Hegira occurred in 615 A.D. when a group of Muslims was counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to the Kingdom of Axum, which was ruled by a Christian king. Muhammad himself did not join this emigration.

King Midas

2012-01-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

The story of Midas is a Greek myth. Midas, the story tells, was a king in Asia Minor. He loved gold more than anything else. When the god Dionysus offered to grant him a wish, Midas wished that everything he touched might turn to gold.
The wish was a very foolish one, as Midas soon found out. His food turned to gold as soon as it touched his lips. To keep from starving he had to beg the god to take away his golden touch.
Dionysus told Midas to bathe in a certain stream. He did. And that is why, the Greeks said, there was a vast amount of gold afterward in the sand of the stream. It was this gold which made Croesus, the famous king of Lydia, very rich.

Periscope

2012-01-06T10:10:00.000-08:00

A periscope is an optical instrument which enables a person to obtain a view otherwise impossible to see. Periscopes allow a submarine crew to survey objects on the surface of the water. A simple periscope can be made by mounting two mirrors on an angle within a tube or a narrow box. A person can look around a corner or over a fence with this homemade periscope.
A submarine periscope consists of a long, stainless steel or bronze tube. The optical lenses and prisms are sealed at the top by a glass window so they are watertight. When the periscope is raised above the surface of the water, light enters through the window. The light striking a right-angle prism at the top, is totally reflected downward through several lenses to a second prism or a mirror. At this level the light is again totally reflected to the eyepiece, and thus to the observer.
Periscopes are also used for other military purposes. Warships and gun turrets may contain range-finding periscopes designed to protect the operator from enemy fire. Tanks use periscopes, as do foot soldiers in trenches.
Periscopes are employed to observe radioactive materials. This is one way scientists can see over or through protective walls.

What is a Jester?

2012-01-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

Jester

A Jester, or buffoon was a person maintained by a monarch at court to pass away the time with jests and sharp sayings. Alexander the Great and others of the ancients are said to have maintained jesters. During the Middle Ages the fool was a regular attendant of monarchs and the nobility. His traditional dress was distinguished by mock emblems of royalty. He carried a fool's scepter in his hand, and, in place of a crown, wore a fool's cap of cheerful colors, ornamented frequently with jingling bells and a pair of ass's ears. He also wore a broad collar, not infrequently wide enough to serve as a cape. His lower person was clad in hose, with long, upturned toes. The fool was often a person of unusual shrewdness, who, by standing at his master's elbow, was able to help him out of many a hard scrape. If he thought his master about to part with money too readily, he would be able to suggest that a fool and his money were soon parted. Not infrequently the fool was really a controlling mind in matters of great importance. He was supposed to have very little mind, but to speak it freely on all occasions without danger of reprimand or punishment. Wamba of Scott's Ivanhoe is an interesting character of this sort.

Bells

2012-01-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

The Liberty Bell

The idea of bells is old. More than 2,000 years ago Jewish priests wore little bells on their robes. The kings of ancient Persia wore bells for decoration, too. The Chinese also had bells long ago. But big bells were not much used until about 1,500 years ago. Builders then began to put bell towers on churches so that the bells could call people to worship.

From then on bells were used more and more. Town criers rang bells when they had news to tell. Curfew bells told boys and girls when they must be in for the night. Clocks struck the hours on bells. Many cities built bell towers.

Bells are made of many kinds of material. Glass, china, wood, and metal are among them. Most big bells are made of bronze. Some beautiful small bells are made of silver.

A bell makes its sound when it is struck. Many bells are struck by clappers which hang down inside them. These bells ring when they are swung. Some bells have balls inside. These bells ring when they are shaken. Other bells are rung without being moved. They are struck by hammers.

The biggest bell ever made was never rung. A piece broke out of it before it could be. This bell is now standing in Moscow. People can go inside it. The bell is almost as tall as a two-story house. The biggest bell in use is in Moscow, too. Another very large bell is in a pagoda in Burma. The United States has a famous bell—the Liberty Bell.

Some Facts about Foods

2012-01-04T15:56:00.000-08:00

Pickled ants, smoked seaworms, blubber, fried tadpoles—to some people these are fine foods. Many of our foods would be just as strange to people of other lands. But whether we eat pickled ants or pickled peaches, smoked seaworms or smoked ham, blubber or butter, food serves the same purpose for us all.

In the first place food is a fuel. It keeps our bodies running. It gives us energy to work and play. It keeps us warm, too. It does for us very much the same things gasoline does for an automobile.

But it does much more for us than gasoline does for an automobile. No one expects his automobile to get bigger because he keeps putting gasoline in it. He does not expect the gasoline to mend a punctured tire, either. But our food makes us grow, and it furnishes the materials we have to have to mend cut fingers and broken bones. Food also gives us materials that make our bodies run in just the right way.
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Leonardo Fibonacci

2012-01-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

Leonardo Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician. Born Pisa, Italy, about 1170. Died about 1230.
Fibonacci was the outstanding mathematician of the Middle Ages. His famous work on arithmetic, algebra, and number theory, the Líber abad, carried on the work of Arable mathematicians and established Arabic numeráis and the decimal system throughout Europe. In this work, Fibonacci began the fruitful practice of representing various numbers in a problem by a single letter. He is known also for his discussion of an interesting sequence of numbers called the Fibonacci series.

Fibonacci spiral

Fibonacci numbers, also called the Fibonacci series, a series of numbers first studied by the Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170-1230). The series is usually written 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ... Each term in the series is the sum of the two preceding terms. Thus, the next term after 34 would be 55. The Fibonacci series is encountered in certain plants whose leaves spiral around their stems. In some of these plants, adjacent leaves may seem to have rotated through a half turn (½). However, in others the fraction may be 1/3, 2/5, 3/8, 5/13, 8/21, and so on. In these fractions both the numerators and the denominators form Fibonacci series.
Fibonacci numbers are also connected with the golden section, a geometric ratio known to ancient philosophers. The golden section is created by dividing a line segment into two parts so that the ratio of the smaller part to the larger part is the same as the ratio of the larger part to the whole line segment.

What does groat mean?

2012-01-03T16:35:00.000-08:00

Groat or Fuppence is the name of an old English coin. The term literally means great, and was applied originally to large copper coins worth more than a penny. In the reign of Edward III a silver groat of the value of eight cents was coined. Three groats made a shilling. It has not been coined since 1856. Like the American cent, the term has passed into proverbial use to denote a small sum or little value. It appears in "Not worth a groat," "I care not a groat," etc. The term groats, applied to hulled oats or meal used for food, is of very different origin, being allied to grit.

Groat coin

How is Fiberglass Made?

2012-01-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Fiber glass is very strong and flexible and is resistant to extreme temperatures, moisture, oils, and caustic chemicals. In combination with plastics, fiber glass is becoming increasingly important as a structural material.
Fiber glass is made from glass marbles that are melted and poured through tiny boles. As the molten glass drops through the boles, it forms into threads, which are subjected to air or steam pressure. The size of the holes and the amount of pressure determine the thickness of the threads that are formed. These threads can be spun into yarn. Fiber glass yarn can be woven into fabrics that resemble cotton, wool, or silk. Drapes and curtains are among the many textile producís made of fiber glass.
Another kind of fiber glass, called glass wool, is drawn in short fibers directly from a batch of molten glass. Glass wool is made into blankets or matting that is used for insulation against heat and sound.
Many materials are made by combining fiber glass with various plastics. These materials, generally also called fiber glass, can be pressed into sheets or molded into various shapes. They are used for acoustical ceilings, roofing shingles, tile, and construction boards in a wide range of texture and flexibility. Thin fiber glass sheets are suitable substitutes for metal in the manufacture of storage tanks, air ducts, and similar products.
Fiber glass composition material has become increasingly important in the construction of automobile bodies and boat hulls. Automobile bodies and some boat hulls of this material are formed by a hydraulic press in a single operation. Most such boat hulls, however, are made by pressing many sheets of fiber glass onto a mold by hand. Fiber glass boat hulls and automobile bodies do not corrode and are easily repaired.

The sea as a sculptor

2012-01-02T17:44:00.000-08:00

The power of the sea

The power contained in a breaking wave is immense. A wave may strike the shore with a force equal to the pressure of six thousand pounds per square foot. These waves can hollow out or pull down rock cliffs. In some parts of the British Isles they are eating away the coast at the rate of 15 feet a year.
Storm waves tend to tear down the shores. Gentle waves are the builders, for they may leave numberless grains of sand against offshore bars to build up new beaches.
Behind these new sheltering sand bars, tidal marshes grow up. They are built of sediment left by waves and washed down from the land by streams.
Miles of new land like this are built along shorelines where the land has been lifted up so that a gentle slope of the continental shelf is now above water. There are many such beaches along the southeastern United States. For every cliff that crumbles under the hammering of the sea, somewhere a new beach is being built, a new coral reef is growing, or a new volcanic island being thrust up.
The sea and its shores are ever changing. As glaciers grow or melt, they greatly change the amount of water in the seas. Earthquakes change the shapes of ocean basins. There was a time when much of North America was covered by sea. At other periods Alaska and Siberia were joined by a land bridge, and most of the East Indies were a part of Asia—so high did the land masses rise.
There will be other changes in the future which we cannot foresee. We can only be sure that through the ages the sea will continue its miraculous labor.

Thomas Hardy - some facts

2012-01-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, (1840-1928) was a notable English novelist.
He was born in Dorsetshire.
Thomas Hardy studied architecture and practiced his profession for some years, but since 1873 has devoted his time to literature.
Among Hardy's best known novels may be mentioned For from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, Two on a Tower, Tess of the D'Urbermlles, The Three Wayfarers, and Under the Greenwood Tree.
Hardy is recognized as one of the foremost English novelists.
Hardy's poetry, first published in his fifties, had a significant influence over modern English poetry.
A few of his poems, such as The Blinded Bird, expose his love of the natural world and his firm stance against animal cruelty.
A number of prominent composers, including Benjamin Britten, Gerald Finzi, and Gustav Holst, have set poems by Hardy to music.

What is Hardness?

2012-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Diamond, the hardest substance

Hardness is the quality of a solid substance which enables it to scratch or resist being scratched by another substance. For instance, glass will scratch copper, therefore it is harder than copper. The degree of hardness of iron, steel and some other substances is affected by heating and cooling them. Talc is the softest and diamond the hardest substance. In the following list the substances are arranged in the order of their hardness.

1. Talc
2. Gypsum
3. Calcite
4. Fluorpor
5. Apatite
6. Feldspar
7. Quartz
8. Topaz
9. Sapphire
10. Diamond

Hydra of Lerna (mythology)

2011-12-31T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hercules and the Hydra

The Lernean Hydra

In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a fabulous serpent infesting the lake of Lerna in Argolis. It had nine heads. If any one of these was cut off, two grew in its place. The destruction of this monster was one of the twelve labors of Hercules. The term hydraheaded is often applied to an evil which it is difficult to suppress. In zoology, the hydra is a small cylindrical animal of low organism found in cold and fresh waters. One end of the cylinder is attached to a suitable base, the other is surrounded by a whorl of tentacles which waft water containing food into the central cavity.

Gardenia plant and flower

2011-12-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

Gardenia is a genus of shrubs or small trees belonging to the Madder family, Rubiaceae. Sixty species frow in the subtropics, most of them native to the astern Hemisphere. Gardenias have opposite leaves often arranged in threes. The large yellow or white flowers, noted for their waxy petals and sweet fragrance, grow in the axils of the branches. Some species are grown as hedges in southern United States; these bloom profusely from May to September. Gardenia thunbergia and Gardenia lucida, used extensively by florists in northern United States, are difficult to cultivate, requiring a hot, moist habitat with night temperatures of about 65°. Gardenias are propagated by cuttings, each of which has three to four buds. Their attractive blossoms are used in corsages, bouquets, and floral pieces.

Gardenia flowers

Janus (mythology)

2011-12-28T13:10:00.000-08:00

Janus head - coin

In Roman mythology, Janus is an important deity, second only to Jupiter himself. He was regarded as the author of the arts of civilization and was believed to sit at the confines of the earth and at the gates of heaven and to be the special guardian of the beginning and the ending of every undertaking. Janus was thus the god of the rising and of the setting sun. To him was ascribed the system of the years and the change of seasons. The month of January was named for him and his festival was observed on New Year's Day. He was invoked every morning, since fortune and misfortune were in his hands. As the guardián of doorways and gates, Janus is represented in art as two-faced, one face looking eastward, the other westward. In his right hand he holds a scepter and in his left a key. The doors of the temple of Janus in Rome were left open in time of war; in time of peace they were closed with much ceremony and great rejoicing. It is said to have been closed but three times in 700 years.

The Mayan Alphabet

2011-12-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

Mayan Alphabet

On stone columns, on ceramic bowls, and in bark-paper books known as codices, the Classic Maya left written messages for posterity. But until the middle of the twentieth century, no one knew how to read them. The key to the Mayan hieroglyphic code appeared to have disappeared with the ancient culture. In fact, it waited in a long-neglected book by a sixteenth-century Spanish missionary.
Assuming that the Mayan writing system was based on an alphabet similar to that used in Spain, Diego de Landa, third bishop of Yucatán, questioned a literate Maya about the "letters" his people used. After what must have been a frustrating session for both men, the priest compiled a list he believed to be the Mayan alphabet and published it in 1566. Within a century of de Landa's interview, however, the surviving Maya had lost the art of writing their ancient language, rendering the inscriptions and codices meaningless.
De Landa's manuscript came to light in the 1860s, but the latent key still went undetected. By that time, scholars thought that the Mayan glyphs were a form of picture writing and failed to take the friar's alphabet seriously.
But in the 1950s, Soviet scholar Yuri Knorozov finally recognized the value of de Landa's work. The thirty-year-old epigrapher with the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Leningrad realized that de Landa and his informant had been tangled in an intercultural misunderstanding. Each time the friar had asked for a letter of the alphabet, the Maya had responded with the symbol for a syllable. For example, when de Landa asked for the letter b (pronounced "beh" in Spanish), he was given the Mayan symbol for the syllable beh. Many Mayan words, Knorozov saw, were written by stringing together a series of symbols for syllables, not letters. Although his work went unrecognized for many years, Knorozov had made a crucial intuitive leap in breaking the Mayan glyph code. A succeeding generation of researchers has since largely deciphered the ancient language. But Diego de Landa might have done the same four centuries earlier, had he understood the real secret of the Mayan alphabet: There was none.

What is the Last Judgment?

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

In Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism the Last Judgment is the judging of the living and dead by God at the end of the world. Roman Catholics call this the General, or Last, Judgment. They distinguish the Last Judgment from the Particular Judgment, which assigns each individual immediately after death to a temporary place in Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell while awaiting the Last Judgment. Similar to the Catholic concept of a Particular Judgment are the Muslim and Zoroastrian doctrines of a preliminary test of faith that each person undergoes shortly after death.

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo

Who was Orlandus Lassus?

2011-12-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

Orlandus Lassus (1532-1594), also known as Orlando di Lasso and as Roland de Lassus, was one of the greatest Flemish composers of the Renaissance and the most important representative of the Flemish choral school. Members of this school composed highly developed polyphonic music, or music in which two or more independent melodies are sung simultaneously. Lassus' most famous work is his Seven Penitential Psalms, a group of motets, which illustrate his skilled technique and dramatic power. A versatile composer, Orlandus Lassus wrote many secular works in addition to religious music. He is especially noted for his songs. Many of them were set to the verses of famous Renaissance poets, including Petrarch, Ariosto, and Ronsard.
As a young man, Lassus studied at Milan and at Rome, where he worked as chorus master at the Church of St. John Lateran. After the publication of his first works in 1555, Lassus' reputation spread throughout Europe. In 1556 he accepted a post as court musician with Duke Albert V of Bavaria in Munich, where he remained for 38 years. Most of his more than 2,000 works were composed in Munich.
Orlandus Lassus was knighted by Emperor Maximilian II and was received into the Papal Order of the Golden Spur by Pope Gregory XIII.

What is a leitmotif?

2011-12-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

In music, leitmotif is the leading theme, the characteristic phrase, which occurs over and over again in the same composition, in reference to the same person, phrase of feeling or scenic complication of intense passion or action. The phrase strikes the note of these several crises or conjunctures and recurs whenever they are repeated. While many operatic composers, such as Mozart and Weber, have employed the expedient of the leading theme or leitmotif, Wagner does so more than any other modern musician. In his Leitfaden, or analyses of his operas, in which he lays bare some of the secrets of his artistic workmanship, he shows that he has consciously individualized every one of his characters, every change in the scenery or action of the drama, or in the emotions and moods of the dramatis personae, by the introduction of a specific musical theme or leitmotif, which he employs throughout the opera to suggest the same thing. This theme is worked upon and varied with the masterly skill which Wagner possesses in fugue and part writing. Thus in his ‘Parsifal,’ Klingsor, Kundry, Parsifal, Amfortas and the Flower maidens are all ushered in with a special leading theme or leitmotif for each.

There is a special theme for the Eucharist, for the spear (Speermotiv), for the Holy Grail (Gralmotiv). The children's voices raise a strain ‘Faith is still alive’ to the notes of the Glaubensthema, or faith-motive. There is a Leidensmotiv, to express the grief of Amfortas; there is the Doormotiv, expressing the promise of help; the Zaubermotiv, suggesting the devilish power of witchcraft, while the mother's sorrow is suggested by the Motiv des Herzleids, the heart-grief's theme. The Bell-theme, with its pealing sound, the Ride-theme, suggesting the clatter of horsehoofs, the Good Friday theme, with its characteristic chords, each in its way, are powerfully suggestive, and when once recognized. their recurrence has a powerful effect.

January (month)

2011-12-24T18:22:00.000-08:00

January is the first month of the year. The old Roman year began with March. The beginning of the year was shifted to January about 251 B. C., but this arrangement was not accepted by Christian nations until the eighteenth century. The Jewish New Year still falls on March 25th. The month was named in honor of Janus, the god of doors, gates, and all passageways. He was represented in art as a god with two faces, one looking backward, the other forward. New Year's Day was the chief festival in his honor. Presents were then made. The Temple of Janus in Rome was open in time of war. It is said to have been closed but three times in 700 years.

Henry Moseley

2011-12-24T08:13:00.000-08:00

Henry Moseley (1887-1915) was an English physicist whose brilliant research in the field of x-ray spectra of the elements was brought to an abrupt halt by his tragic death during World War I in the attack on Gallipoli.
Born at Weymouth, Dorset, Moseley was educated first at Eton and then at Trinity College, Oxford. Immediately following graduation, he accepted a post as lecturer in physics in Ernest Rutherford's laboratory at the University of Manchester, where he remained until wartime.
Henry Moseley's first research concerned radioactivity. Then he began his spectacular research on the X-ray spectra of the elements. Moseley revealed the structure of the electron rings in almost all atoms so that the X-ray spectra of the elements could be arranged in a continuing series. Moseley's work made it possible to identify elements by continuously ordered numbers. His discovery was a vital contribution to the understanding of atomic structure.

The Griffin (mythology)

2011-12-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

The Griffin, or Gryphon, was in Greek legend, a fabulous creature with the body and legs of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. Griffins were supposed to be natives of India, where, it was said, they guarded hidden treasure, and built their nests of gold and watched them vigilantly to keep them from plunderers. They were believed by the Greeks to flourish in the Rhipaean mountains, between the Hyperboreans and the one-eyed Arimaspians of Scythia. Griffins guarded the gold of the north. The figure of the griffin was used frequently as an ornament in works of art. It signifies a union of the lion's strength with the swiftness and agility of the eagle. The griffin is also an emblem of watchfulness and courage.

When did the first powered airplane fly?

2011-12-23T11:24:00.000-08:00

Powered flight really started with William Henson and John Stringfellow using Cayley's principles, these two
Englishmen designed an aerial steam carriage in 1842. Many of their ideas were practical, but they, too, were ahead of their time — there was no adequate engine.
In 1848, Stringfellow, working alone, built a model 10 feet long with a batlike wing. It had an engine which weighed less than 9 pounds and powered two propellers. It made short, sustained flights, flying as much as 40 yards. It was only a model, but it was real, powered flight.

John Stringfellow and William Henson design

What is asthma?

2011-12-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

The disease 'Asthma,' which is characterized by periodic attacks of spasms of the bronchial tubes should not be confused with conditions having as a symptom difficult or rapid breathing such as heart and kidney disease, arteriosclerosis (hardehed arteries), thyroid gland disturbances (goiter), and overweight.
It is therefore very important that anyone having an asthmatic tendency receive a thorough examination to determine whether the condition is really 'asthma' rather than a manifestation of some constitutional disease.

Causes. 'True asthma' is probably due in practically all cases to a 'hypersensitiveness' on the part of the individual to some bacteria, pollen, or other protein substance. Associated with this condition of hypersensitivity there is frequently found a chronic irritation of the nose or throat, less frequently disease of the ear. Chronic bronchitis is often associated with asthma and frequently an acute inflammation of the lining membranes of the upper air passages will be the causative factor, particularly in persons hypersensitive to pollens.
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Sidney Opera House

2011-12-22T03:30:00.000-08:00

Like a ship with its sails set for the future, the Opera House dominates the harbor in Sidney, Australia. Built out on a peninsula, the building is a series of concrete shells that house a center for the performings arts.
Geographically an Asian country, Australia has an English heritage strongly influenced by its isolation from Europe. Australia has also taken in many European refugees who have helped to make its culture more international.
Thus, when the Australian goverment decided to build a center to celebrate the arts, it sponsored a worldwide competition to choose its architect, Joern Utzon, a Dane, was the winner. His building rests on a high platform, and the shells rise more than 200 feet (60 meters) above ground level. It contains four theaters, each acoustically perfect for the type of performance held. There is a concert hall, an opera theater, a drama theater, and a chamber music and film hall. Completed in 1973, the Sidney Opera House is today considered one of the modern world's outstanding buildings.

Causes of fever

2011-12-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

Fever is a condition in which the temperature of the body is more than its normal 98.6° F. The term is also used as part of the name of certain diseases, such as typhoid fever and scarlet fever, in which a prominent symptom is a high temperature. Fever is not a disease, but a symptom of many different disorders, especially diseases caused by infections. Although people have survived temperatures of more than 110° F., a fever of 106° F. may have serious effects, particularly in babies or elderly people.
The course of fever varies in different diseases. The first signs of fever are often chilly sensations, frequently associated with flushed or warm feelings. The temperature may rise slowly or rapidly, and it may stay up or may fluctuate. As it rises, it may be associated with shaking chills. If it falls quickly, profuse sweating may occur.

Causes of Fever
As its cells burn foodstuffs for energy, the body constantly produces heat. At the same time the body constantly loses heat to its surroundings through the skin, through breathing, and in other ways. The temperature of the body is a measure of the balance between heat produced and heat lost.
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What are the last rites?

2011-12-21T18:46:00.000-08:00

The last rites is a popular term for the Roman Catholic sacraments given to the sick, particularly to those who are in danger of death. The rites consist of penance, or confession and absolution, the viaticum, or last Communion, and extreme unction, or anointment with oil and a blessing.

Last Rites

What is fetishism?

2011-12-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

In anthropology, fetishism is the veneration of an object that is believed to have supernatural power. Various kinds of fetishes are found in many societies throughout the world. Some fetishes are thought to contain spirits. Others, such as charms and talismans, are considered to be powerful and lucky without being the abodes of particular spirits. Some fetishes are small and are carried on the person as amulets. Good luck pieces, like the rabbit's foot, are fetishes in some societies. West Africa is famed for fetishism associated with the highly developed art of wood carving.
In psychology, fetishism is an abnormal attachment to any object. Young children who cannot be separated
from their blankets and adults who are enamored of items of clothing usually worn by the opposite sex are said to be fetishists.

Double stars

2011-12-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

The first double star ever recorded—Mizar in the Big Dipper— was discovered accidentally in 1650 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli. Subsequent discoveries by other astronomers were also accidental. By 1779, enough observations had been compiled to inspire the indefatigable William Herschel (1738-1822) to begin a systematic search for these stellar curiosities. Two years later, he had discovered more than 800 new double stars, assessing each pair with a filar micrometer, a device that allowed him to precisely measure the separation and orientation of the components. Later measurements of these stars by Herschel and others revealed that some of them were, in fact, orbiting each other.
The American astronomer S, W. Burnham (1838-1921) kicked off a new age of double-star discovertes in 1873 when he published a list of 81 new pairs he had found with his 6 inch (150 mm) refractor. Over the next four decades, this tireless, sharp-eyed observer discovered an additional 1,340 double stars using telescopes of various sizes. In 1906, his observations were collected in the General Catalogue of Double Stars.

Robert Koch

2011-12-20T10:28:00.000-08:00

Robert Koch was a German microbiologist. Born near Hanover, Germany, Dec. 11, 1843. Died Baden-Baden, Germany, May 28, 1910.
Koch was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for identifying the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Until Koch's discovery it was thought that tuberculosis is due to a nutritional disorder. Koch was the first person to show that the disease is an infection caused by bacteria carried through the air on dust particles. In his study of these bacteria, Koch developed a basic method of isolating and identifying any disease-causing bacteria. This method, called Koch's postulates, is still used in microbilogy. Koch also developed a test for diagnosing tuberculosis.
Koch began his career in microbiology with a study of anthrax, an infectious disease of livestock that may be transmitted to man. In 1876 he isolated and identified the anthrax-causing bacterium. By observing their life cycle. he also explained how the disease is spread from one animal to another.
In studying anthrax, Koch used a liquid medium to cultivate the bacteria. However, the medium was not entirely satisfactory because it allowed the bacteria to move freely and they could not be carefully observed. For his study of tuberculosis-causing bacteria, Koch wanted a solid medium on which to grow the microorganisms. With such a medium the bacteria would remain on the surface, where they could be easily seen. After experimenting with various kinds of culture media, Koch finally developed a solid medium using gelatin. Many scientists consider this Koch's greatest contribution to the field of microbiology.
Between 1883 and 1907, Koch traveled throughout India, Egypt, and other parts of Afric, studying the various epidemic diseases of those areas. In India he discovered the bacteria that cause cholera and showed that the disease is spread through polluted water. He also proved that bubonic plague is transmitted to man through the bite of a flea that has lived on an infected rat.

Antoine Henri Becquerel (bio)

2011-12-19T14:38:00.000-08:00

Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908) is known as the man who discovered radioactivity—a discovery that influenced the development of atomic weapons, nuclear energy, and radioactive medical treatments.
Becquerel was born on December 15, 1852, in Paris, France. Both his father, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, and his grandfather, Antoine Cesar Becquerel, one of the founders of electrochemistry, were physicists.
Becquerel worked as an engineer as well as a professor of physics. His discovery of radiation occurred in February 1896. A few months before, Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered X rays—invisible penetrating forms of radiation. Becquerel wanted to find out whether or not phosphorescent materials—materials that glow in the dark after being stimulated by sunlight—would also give off X rays. What he discovered was that certain substances, such as uranium, would give off X rays even when they had not been stimulated by light.
Soon scientists discovered that other elements give off energy in this way. These are the radioactive elements, whose atoms are decaying. Particles from the atoms break away and release the energy that held the atoms together. When harnessed, this produces the enormous energy needed to produce nuclear power.
In 1901, while experimenting with radium, Becquerel developed what looked like a reddish-brown sunburn on his skin. He reasoned that the burn was caused by the radium—that the rays emitted were able to penetrate and cause changes to living things. His discovery led to the controlled use of radioactivity in the treatment of some diseases. For his discoveries he was awarded, along with Marie and Fierre Curie, the Nobel prize in physics in 1903.
Becquerel died on August 25, 1908, in Le Croisic, France

What is sleeping sickness?

2011-12-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

Sleeping sickness is an endemic disease confined to equatorial Africa and characterized in its terminal stages by sleepiness, torpor, and coma. Sleeping sickness has been known since 1800. It was then endemic in a few localities, but in recent years it has become widespread. The disease is caused by a blood parasite, the Trypanosoma gambiense, which is conveyed by two varieties of the tsetse fly, Glossina palpalis and Glossina morsitans. Wild and domestic animals act as reservoirs for the sickness, the disease in the animal being known as nagana, the tsetse fly disease of cattle.
Two types of sleeping sickness are recognized. The Uganda type, carried by Glossina palpalis and confined to the watercourses and lake shores, was first identified in 1901. It is violently epidemic. The variety occurring in Nyassaland and Rhodesia has been known only since 1908, is highly fatal but not epidemic. The fly that is the conveyer in this case is Glossina morsitans, which is independent of water.
The name "sleeping sickness" is also applied popularly to an unrelated group of diseases which cause coma and are known medically as encephalitis.

What is a Quarter (coin)?

2011-12-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

Quarter is a United States coin worth 25 cents, or a quarter of a dollar. The government issued the first quarters in 1796. The Washington quarter was first minted in 1932, the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth. Washington's head appears on one side, and an eagle is on the other side. Quarters of several other designs were used before the Washington quarter.
Until 1965, quarters contained 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper. Because of a shortage of silver, the Coinage Act of 1965 eliminated silver from the coin. Since then, quarters have consisted of a layer of copper sealed between two layers composed of a copper-nickel mixture.

Quarter coin

Three types of waves

2011-12-18T11:28:00.000-08:00

Most people think of a "wave" as meaning any vertical rise or swelling of the sea. Actually there are three types of waves.

When a wave first forms in wind-blown water, it is called a sea. When it has left the storm area and is traveling across calm water, it is a "swell." When it reaches land and breaks, it is "surf."

The height of a storm wave, or sea, depends on violence of the wind, length of time the storm lasts, and extent of open water over which the storm rages. Most seas are only 5 to 12 feet high, but a two-day storm may produce 20-foot waves. Even 50-foot waves have been reported.

Each drop of water in a wave moves in a circular pattern, as if on a wheel. For a drop near the surface this circle is the height of the wave; deeper down the circle is smaller. Any one drop of water moves ahead at only 1 to 2 percent of the speed of the wave. At about 600 feet or more below the surface, the sea is alwavs calm.

Swells travel under their own momentum across wide areas of windless water. They are low, widely spaced, and fast-moving. They keep traveling in an orderly pattern to far-distant shores. As they travel, their height lessens, the spacing between waves lengthens, and their speed increases. Eventually a swell may travel faster than the wind that set it in motion.

When it nears a shore, the wave "feels bottom." Slowed by friction against the sea bottom, it rises from a low swell to a narrow, steep crest. The crest hurries forward faster than the slowed-down wave. Breaking into foam, it tumbles forward in a burst of fury onto the sand.

Sea Waves

What is a slide rule?

2011-12-18T01:01:00.000-08:00

Slide rule is an instrument composed of various scales, the positions of which in relation to each other may be altered, used for the rapid performance of certain arithmetical operations. The scales may be engraved on straight rods, disks, or on the surface of a cylinder. In its simplest form it consists of two rules, arranged to slide on each other, and so divided into scales that by sliding the rules backward or forward until a selected number on one scale is made to coincide with a selected number on the other, the desired result is read off directly on a third scale. By means of a duplex slide rule, where the rule may be set for four factors instead of two, more complicated problems may be solved. Revolving slide rules are employed to increase the virtual length of the scales and the number of decimal places to which results may be read. Circular slide rules, resembling watches, are also made. The various slide rules proper depend on the mechanical use of logarithms, and the scales are graduated on a logarithmic basis. The slide rule used by research engineers and scientists has many special scales for the evaluation of trigonometric functions and angles, roots and powers, calculations involving ir, and hyperbolic sines and tangents. The size of the slide rule determines the accuracy of the answer. Larger rules are subdivided so that the anwer may be read to more significant figures than can be estimated on the smaller rule.

The Fall of Crete

2011-12-17T16:44:00.000-08:00

From the 30th to the 16th century BC, a great civilization developed on the Aegean island of Crete. With centers of culture and power in such palatial cities as Knossos, Mallia, and Phaistos, the ancient race was one of skilled seafarers and artisans, an oceangoing people that dominated the Mediterranean for centuries. Then, inexplicably, all of Crete's towns and palaces were destroyed, and the society collapsed, abandoning its former influence and turning away from the sea. Because archaeologists have found echoes of Greek myth in the artifacts and ruins left from that vanished world, they have called it Minoan, after Minos, the legendary Cretan king— and mortal son of the god Zeus—whose palace held the labyrinth and the half bull, half man called the Minotaur. Historians speculate that the Minoans first arrived in Crete about 7000 BC, presumably from Asia Minor. By 1700 BC, the island's population was an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people, one of the largest in the world at that time. Expert seafarers and boat builders, the Minoans built sturdy keeled craft that could travel several hundred miles in a few days—this at a time when the Egyptians were using rudimentary troughlike vessels for simple river navigation. Its maritime supremacy so eclipsed that of other cultures that Crete was virtually immune from invasion; the secure Minoans did not even bother to fortify their palaces.
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

2011-12-17T05:17:00.000-08:00

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), was the chief influence in the creation of the literature of aviation. He was a flier himself, and died an aviator's death, disappearing while on an Allied reconnaissance mission during World War II. Saint-Exupéry was an air pioneer, opening routes over Africa, the South Atlantic, and the Andes Mountains.
During the campaign of France from May to June, 1940, Saint-Exupéry led a squadron in an unequal fight against superior German air forces. He wrote Night Flight (1932), Wind, Sand and Stars (1939), and The Little Prince (1943).
Saint-Exupéry often used his books to discuss his philosophy of life. He was born in Lyon, France.

What is a gallon?

2011-12-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

Gallon is a measure of capacity containing 231 cubic inches or four quarts. The standard for the U.S. gallon is a volume of 3,785.307 cubic centimeters, 0.13368 cubic feet. The U.S. gallon of distilled water weighs 8.337 pounds (roughly 8.3 pounds) when measured at 15 °C. (59 °F.), relative humidity of 50 percent, and air pressure of 29.92 inches of mercury.
The British imperial gallon (also used in Canada) has a capacity of 4,546.1 cubic centimeters or 277.3 cubic inches. An imperial gallon of distilled water weighs 10 pounds at 15 °C. (59 °F.) The old English wine gallon was 231 cubic inches. In countries using the metric system, four liters would be the nearest convenient equivalent to the U.S. gallon.

The Brothers Grimm

2011-12-16T04:23:00.000-08:00

Brothers Grimm

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German philologists, writers, and university professors. Jacob, the older, lived 1785-1863. Wilhelm lived 1786-1859. Throughout their lives they were inseparable, and are spoken of as the Brothers Grimm. Wilhelm was married. Jacob remained single and lived with his brother. With five other professors they were expelled from the faculty of the university of Gottingen in 1837 for teaching that the elector of Hanover was exceeding his constitutional authority. The brothers united in making a popular collection of fairy tales known as Kinder-und Hausmärchen. Wilhelm was a cheery, social man; Jacob was a renowned student of the German language. He left a German grammar and a German dictionary incomplete. The rule relative to consonant changes, known as Grimm's Law, was published by him.

Who is the father of aeronautics?

2011-12-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

Sir George Cayley has been called the father of aeronautics. This is the science of flight, including the principies and techniques of building and flying balloons, airships and airplanes, as well as aerodynamics , the science of air in motion and the movement of bodies through the air.
This early nineteenth century Englishman denounced ornithopters as impractical. Drawing upon an earlier discovery, Cayley decided that it would be possible to make a plane fly through the air if the plane were light enough, and if air could be forced against its wings by moving the plane through the air.
He solved the problem of making the plane light by using diagonal bracing to reinforce the wings and body instead of using solid pieces of wood. The second problem, moving the ship through the air, was to be solved by a propeller-driven engine. Since there was no engine light enough or powerful enough, Cayley designed his own. It was an internal combustion engine which would use "oil of tar," or gasoline, as we now call it. But the fuel was too costly and Cayley was forced to abandon his engine. It was not until almost a hundred years later that such an engine was successfully built.

Cayley glider

What are lay days?

2011-12-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

Lay Days is a maritime law term designating the stipulated number of days granted to the charterer of a vessel for shipping or unloading cargo, during which time no charge may be made for wharfage. The sum charged for days ini excess of the number allowed ir. the charter is called demurrage and its amount is usually fixed in the charter. The period of lay days begins at the arrival of the vessel ir port, and, in the absence of custom or agreement to the contrary, includes Sundays. It, maritime insurance lay days also designate a period, commonly limited to 30 days, for which rebate of insurance may be demanded while a ship has remained idle and without fires at a dock.

What is Fog?

2011-12-15T04:25:00.000-08:00

A fog is a cloud close to the ground. Clouds are made of tiny drops of water. So are fogs. There may be so many of these droplets that they shut off the view of everything round about. There are many accidents in fogs because people cannot see their way.
Fogs occur most often near big bodies of water. The land often cools off much faster than the water. Warm, moist air moving in over the land is cooled quickly. Some of the water vapor in the air changes to drops of water and forms a fog. In cities fog may have so much smoke mixed with it that it is called "smog."
Some cities are famous for their fogs. London is one of them.
Fogs disappear when the ground warms up or when a brisk wind blows them away. They can be driven away by fires. During World War II millions of dollars were spent to keep airfields free of fog.

How do we know what it's like inside the Earth?

2011-12-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

Suppose you could dig a hole four thousand miles deep, straight to the center of the Earth. What would you find on the way? Although the deepest oil well only goes down about four miles, scientists have put together many kinds of information, and this is how they think the Earth is made from the surface to the center:
First comes a crust of ordinary rock. This is twenty or thirty miles thick in most places. Under the Pacific Ocean it is only a few miles thick.
Next comes a layer of heavier rock about 1,800 miles thick.
Inside this layer is the Earth's core. The core seems to be a sort of liquid metal, very hot and much heavier than any metals you have ever seen.
Information about the Earth's inside comes from an instrument that was invented for another purpose. This instrument is the seismograph which makes a little wavy line on special paper every time it is joggled by an earthquake. Scientists study these wavy lines to find out when and where the Earth is quaking. They have also discovered that the lines can help reveal what kind of material the shocks of the earthquake passed through on their way from the quake to the seismograph.
Will we ever have a look at the Earth's core itself? Probably not. But some day we will certainly know more about it and what it is made of.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

2011-12-14T11:38:00.000-08:00

In the 1660's the members of the English Royal Society were greatly stirred by a letter from a modest but reliable observer in Holland. It announced that the writer, peering through microscopes fashioned by his own hands, had discovered a vast number of "little animals" in rain water. These "living atoms," or "animalcules," as he called them, were tiny; several thousand would fill the space of a grain of sand.

The Dutchman who thus first spied upon the world of infinitely small creatures was Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), an untutored ex-shopkeeper and minor official of the picturesque city of Delft. (Some say that he was the janitor of the city hall.) He built his own microscopes — hundreds of them — and with them he observed anything that aroused his curiosity: the brain of a fly, the legs of a louse, sections of the crystalline lens of an ox's eye and the stinger of a bee.
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Samuel Morse

2011-12-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

Samuel Morse (1791-1872) was the American who invented the most widely used telegraph. He also developed the Morse code, an alphabet consisting of dots and dashes to be used in sending messages.
In addition to his inventive genius, Morse was one of the finest American artists of his day, being especially gifted in portrait painting. He was the founder of the National Academy of Design in New York City and served for nineteen years as its first president.
The son of a well-known and highly respected clergyman and geographer, Morse was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts. He received his education at Yale College, but he was not a serious student. He developed a fervent interest in painting miniature portraits and wanted to study art in London.
In 1832 Samuel Morse returned to Europe, intending to study art, but on his trip across he became engaged in a dinner conversation that changed his entire life.
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What is Ultrasound?

2011-12-13T19:23:00.000-08:00

Some sounds are too high pitched for people to hear. Most people can't hear frequencies greater than 20,000 Hz. Sounds above the range of human hearing are called ultrasound. Even though you can't hear ultrasound, it has many important medical and commercial uses. You may have experienced ultrasound without being aware of it.
Scientists produce ultrasound by changing electric or magnetic energy into mechanical energy. They use a device called an ultrasonic transducer. The transducer has a quartz or ceramic disk that can be charged with electricity. When charged, the disk vibrates very rapidly. The high-frequency vibration produces ultrasonic waves.

Medical Uses

Doctors use ultrasound to observe soft tissues in the human body. Soft tissues, such as those that make up the liver, are almost invisible on an X-ray picture. However, ultrasonic waves reflect off soft tissues. A computer transforms the reflected waves into a picture on a computer screen. The picture is called a sonogram. Using a sonogram, a surgeon can detect a tumor or examine valves in the heart. Pregnant women routinely have sonograms to determine the development of the fetus.
Other medical professionals also use ultrasonic devices. Physicians use ultrasonic vibrations to get rid of stones that form in the kidney and gall bladder. The ultrasonic vibrations break the stones into very small pieces so they can pass out of the body naturally. Dental hygienists use high-frequency vibrations to loosen plaque deposits on teeth. Physical therapists use ultrasound to produce a deep-heating effect for muscle spasms and sprains.

Commercial Uses
Ultrasound is used to clean small, intricate metal items, such as jewelry and small machine parts. The item to be cleaned is placed in a liquid bath. Ultrasonic vibrations travel through the liquid bath to loosen and remove dirt and corrosion. Ultrasound makes it easy to clean cracks and crevices that can't be reached by hand-polishing methods.

What happens in the body during exercise?

2011-12-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

When you step on the accelerator of your car, the carburetor feeds more gasoline to the engine. The engine runs faster — that is, the chemical energy of the fuel is changed into heat energy and mechanical energy at an increased rate. But it is not enough to supply the engine with more gasoline; if that were all, your car would soon be on the scrap heap. A great many other factors are involved.

In order to burn the fuel, a greater supply of oxygen is needed; hence, the carburetor must suck in air to the engine in greater quantities than before. A good deal more heat is generated at high speeds. To keep the engine from becoming overheated, more cooling must be provided by the water pump, which circulates water through the engine jacket, and by the fan, which blows air over the radiator. The ignition must produce more sparks per minute to fire the fuel in the cylinders; more oil must flow in order to lubrícate the working parts. Many operations are required, therefore, in order to bring about an increased rate of energy transformation in your automobile.
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Transit of Venus

2011-12-13T03:33:00.000-08:00

Every One-hundred years or so, observers on Earth can watch Venus at inferior conjunction pass across the face of the Sun. These rare events are called transits of Venus, and they occur in a pair, 8 years apart. The last two transits were in 1874 and 1882; the next two take place on 8 June 2004 and 6 June 2012. In 2004, Venus crossed the southern part of the Sun, and in 2012, the northern part.
In earlier times, transits of Venus let astronomers measure the distance from Earth to Venus, and, by extension, the scale of the Solar System. After the telescope was invented, a handful of astronomers made individual efforts for the 1639 transit. But for the 1761 and 1769 events, the British and French sent out expeditions all over the globe, among them the famous exploring voyage of James Cook, which went to Tahiti for the 1769 transit.
Better distances for the Solar System did emerge from these efforts, but the most notable finding was about Venus itself. Observing the 1761 transit, the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov discovered that Venus has an atmosphere. He noted the halo it produced around the black dot of the planet as it slipped onto the solar disk and off again.

Transit of Venus in 2004

The Barrymore family

2011-12-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Actress Ethel Barrymore said of herself and brothers Lionel and John: "We became actors not because we wanted to go on the stage, but because it was the thing we could do best."
The Barrymores were a noted family of actors who traced their connection with the stage back to Shakespeare's day. Ethel, Lionel, and John appeared together on film only once—in Rasputin and the Empress (1932). Separately, they displayed the acting talent that made the name Barrymore a synonym for actor.
Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) became a star at the age of 21 in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines. She appeared in a series of comedies and later in plays by Ibsen and Shakespeare. She crowned her stage career in 1940 in Emlyn Williams' The Corn is Green. She also acted in films, winning an Academy Award for None But the Lonely Heart (1944).
Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954) was a skillful character actor. In 1918 he made a great hit in The Copperhead, followed by The Jest in 1919 (with his brother), Macbeth (1921). and The Claw (1921). After that he devoted most of his time to motion pictures. Troubled in his later years by a hip injury, he remained active in films, performing from a wheelchair.
Stunning portrayals of Richard III and Hamlet established John Barrymore (1882-1942) as one of the greatest actors of the English-speaking stage. He later starred in a variety of films, including Grand Hotel (1932) and Twentieth Century (1934). His charm, his classic profile, and his headline romances added a new chapter to the Barrymore legend—a legend that lives on in younger generations of Barrymores, including the actress Drew Barrymore (1975- ).

Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore

Who were the Cro-Magnons?

2011-12-11T02:02:00.000-08:00

Some 40.000 years ago—just about the time Neanderthal people disappeared—a new kind of people moved into Europe, perhaps from Africa or Asia. They were better equipped to survive than were Neanderthal people, for they were stronger and more intelligent and made better tools and weapons.
This new kind of human is called Cro-Magnon "man," from the name of a cave in southern France where remains were found. But the France of 40,000 years ago was very different from the France of today. It was quite cold. The polar icecap of the fourth period of the Ice Age extended far south into Europe. We know Europe was cold because with the Cro-Magnon bones were found the remains of plants and animals that live only in a cold climate.
We know much more about Cro-Magnon people than we do about any of the other early humans. For one thing, more of their remains have been found. Then, too, these people themselves "told" us more. They could not write, but they could draw and paint. Cro-Magnon people were probably the first real artists. In the caves of southern France and Spain where Cro-Magnon people lived, the walls are covered with their paintings of the animals they hunted. Among the animals they painted were the woolly mammoth and the reindeer. These paintings are full of life and movement. The Cro-Magnons also made small clay and limestone statues of animals and carved figures on bones and antlers.
Cro-Magnon people looked almost the same as modern men and women. They lived on earth for many thousands of years. By the end of the Old Stone Age, however, the Cro-Magnon as a distinct type no longer existed. In appearance, people had become as they are today.

Cro-magnon man

Who was Griselda?

2011-12-10T19:35:00.000-08:00

In medieval legend, Griselda, Griseldis, or Grissel, is a character who was so patient under severe tests imposed upon her by her husband that her name has become proverbial. Griselda was the beautiful daughter of a poor charcoal burner. The Marquis of Saluzzo made her his wife. He treated her most cruelly, but with the presumably justifiable intention of testing her obedience and patience. He took her children from her, pretending that they were put to death, while really they were sent to be brought up elsewhere. Finally, after she had borne uncomplainingly every indignity and unkindness, her husband informed her that he intended to divorce her and marry another. Even at this the patient Griselda offered no complaint. She was stripped of her fine clothes and sent back to her father's cottage. When the day set for the Marquis' wedding arrived, Griselda was sent for to prepare for and welcome the bride. She made preparations for her rival carefully, and with the same calm sweetness with which she had borne other trials. When the expected "bride" appeared, she proved to be no bride, but Griselda's own daughter, now a beautiful young girl. Griselda was restored to her rightful place as wife of the Marquis and was famous forever after for her patience and wifely obedience.

The origin of the story is unknown. Boccaccio told it in the Decameron. It is the last story of the collection, and the best. Petrarch translated the story into Latin; Chaucer used it as the clerk's tale in Canterbury Tales. Maria Edgeworth has written a novel entitled The Modern Griselda. In Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says of Katharina, "For patience, she will prove a second Grissel."

Griselda