Reading Ancient ‘Unreadable’ Texts Lost for Centuries
Any Bibliophile will appreciate, or at least empathise (if you’ve never had the opportunity), the exquisite pleasure of gazing upon an ancient book or scroll and reading the words engraved on its pages hundreds or thousands of years ago.
To Discover Strange New Worlds – Columbus’ Venture into the Unknown
Wednesday October 12th 1492 was no ordinary day, for on this day Christopher Columbus reached the New World. On that day, after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, the Italian explorer sighted a Bahamian island, believing he had reached East Asia.
When did people start freezing food for preservation ?
“Why not collect the ice off our ponds and sell it in the tropics?” – Well actually that’s exactly what they did. In this article we take a look at a potted history of how mankind developed freezing food in order to preserve it.
Fantastic Plastic – What would the world do without this technological wonderstuff
There are some discoveries and inventions which have literally revolutionsied the way we live and changed teh direction of technology and therefore mankind. Plastics are one of them.
Radio Ga Ga
We take radio and television signals for granted now. But if you really think about it radio waves really are a strange phenominon … invisibly beaming sound from one point to another through and around solid objects !
The Humble Potato – a History
The potato’s story begins about 8,000 years ago near Lake Titicaca, in South America. In this article we look at how it became the one of most popular foodstuff in the world today.
Coffee – buzzy, frothy goodness
According to tradition, around AD 1000, an Ethiopian goatsman named Kaldi observed his herd becoming much more energetic after munching on the bright red berries of a certain bush – the coffee plant. He tried them himself and was the first person to get the energy buzz we’re all familiar with.
Penicillin – Wonderstuff
The story of the miracle drug that we tend to take for granted today … Penicillan.
Cement and Concrete
Concrete is not a modern material. Did you know the Romans used it? But who discovered it and how long ago was it used?
Pasteurised Milk
Microbes are everywhere … feeding, multiplying, in the air, soil, on our hands, in food, in our intestines. Their effects can be deadly. Read how 1 man discovered a simple technique to neutralise them.
