Sir Isaac Newton (Image: Wikipedia) People usually expect great scientists to leave behind complicated ideas or technical explanations. Equations, theories, discoveries. Things that sound difficult enough to belong inside textbooks. That is partly why this quote from Isaac Newton catches people off guard even now.“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I…
Scientists have discovered a massive magma ocean beneath Africa’s Afar Depression. This vast network of underground structures is actively pushing the Earth’s crust apart. The Afar Depression of Eastern Africa is an area where you could literally see the world break into pieces. It is a mesmerising location where the Earth’s crust is slowly separating…
One of the mysterious places in the world is the Bermuda Triangle, a triangular-shaped area located in the Atlantic Ocean, which is often associated with ship and airplane disappearances. The reported disappearance of ships and planes has been the subject of various studies in an attempt to unravel the mysteries behind their occurrences through natural…
A mysterious metal sphere washed ashore in Japan, sparking global panic and wild online speculation about spy devices. Image Credit: Gemini Imagine yourself enjoying a tranquil, warm, clear morning at a beach and are expecting to hear nothing but the gentle surf and occasionally a stray seashell. But instead, you come across an enormous, dark…
Archaeologists unearthed a Roman military camp from the year zero in Frankfurt, challenging the traditional narrative of violent Roman expansion. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons As archaeologists began to explore the luscious gardens of the Bolongaro Palace in Frankfurt, they were hoping to discover historic objects from the 17th century. They instead came across the greatest…
An ancient Spanish coin, minted 2,000 years ago, was mistakenly used as bus fare in Leeds in 1950. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Imagine opening your wallet after an exhausting commute, only to pull out a couple of normal pennies, only to find a piece of currency once used to circulate through the old Mediterranean. This…
Henri Becquerel accidentally uncovered radioactivity by keeping photographic plates in the dark. Image credit – Wikimedia Some of the greatest scientific discoveries started out unexpectedly. One such case was a finding made in 1896 by the French scientist Henri Becquerel during experiments with phosphorescent substances. Photographic plates, which had been wrapped together with uranium salts,…
The uranium experiment that went wrong triggered the discovery of nuclear fission. Image credit – Wikimedia While conducting some meticulous experiments in Berlin towards the end of 1938, two chemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, saw something that defied the scientific laws of the period. Following their bombardment of uranium with neutrons, they analyzed the…
The chemist licked his fingers after dinner, and uncovered the first artificial sweetener. Image credit – Wikimedia The odd flavor detected while eating dinner sparked one of the greatest innovations in the modern food industry. In 1879, Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist, was experimenting in Ira Remsen’s chemistry laboratory in Johns Hopkins University. He noted that…
Renovating their English countryside home, Robert and Betty Fooks unearthed a 17th-century coin hoard. Image Credit: Gemini Imagine that you’re browsing through Zillow as you dream of the ideal “fixer-upper” with character. Then you find yourself in a historical house situated in the English countryside. You grab some axes to push down the foundation floor…
