Category
Destacada
7 articles
Barbecued Meat and the Origin of the Buccaneers
How did barbecued meat give the buccaneers their name? The surprising tale of ruthless pirates who learned to smoke meat the Taíno way on Hispaniola.
The Awakening: The Day Machines Become Conscious
Could an artificial intelligence ever become conscious? A look at artificial brains, integrated information theory and the crucial role of memory.
The History of Smiling in Photographs: From the Mona Lisa to Digital Cameras
Why nobody smiled in old photographs: a journey from long exposures and the Mona Lisa's enigma to the digital cameras that made grinning effortless.
The strange parties to inhale anesthesia of the early 19th century
Nitrous oxide was one of the first effective anesthetics discovered, but it did not always have that important use.
The almost unknown bet that changed the history of humanity.
A 40-shilling bet between Halley, Hooke and Wren one winter night in 1684 pushed a reclusive Newton to unveil gravity and change history forever.
The most numerous animals on the planet are also the least known. The infamous case of krill and springtails.
The most numerous animals on Earth aren't ants or mosquitoes but krill and springtails, tiny creatures that quietly hold the food chain together.
The dance plague of 1518, the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the tarantulas
In 1518 Strasbourg, dozens danced themselves to death in a plague no one can explain, a mystery tangled with tarantulas and the Piper of Hamelin.