Magpies belong to the Corvidae family of birds. Like other family members, they are often regarded as clever creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for example, is considered one of the most intelligent creatures on the planet. It is one of the few non-mammal species capable of recognizing itself in a mirror test. But how did a […]
The Micronesians or Marshallese were able to build vessels known as outrigger canoes and develop their system of piloting and navigation centuries ago. Long before modern mapping and GPS, the Micronesian people relied on their ability to sense the motion of the waves for navigation. But did you know that they also navigated ocean swells?
Before our flight takes off, the cabin crew gives us a run down of all the safety features of the plane. This covers emergency exits and safety protocol as well as an introduction about the oxygen masks. But do you know how these oxygen masks work and what they’re actually called? The masks on the
How Do Oxygen Candles Work? Read More »
Legends about the Red Baron, Germany’s most prolific fighter ace of World War I, are so pervasive in popular culture that some people may believe the man and his exploits were nothing more than a myth. But do you know what happened to the Red Baron? On April 21, 1918, in the heavily trafficked skies
What Happened to the Red Baron? Read More »
NASA retired a historic piece of equipment on December 1, 2014, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It wasn’t a rocket or even a deep space nine-iron. It was the original countdown clock, a large analog display the size of a titan’s wristwatch that stood across the river from the rocket launch site and
What Inspired NASA to Use a Countdown for Rocket Launches? Read More »
A group of researchers conducted an experiment to confirm the common belief that people walk in circles when they are lost. Let’s talk about the results and the reason why people walk around in circles. According to a study conducted by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany, humans will walk
Why Do We Walk in Circles? Read More »
$750 million …the annual operating cost of the Pentagon’s Global Positioning System, according to a new Congressional Research Service report. GPS is a constellation of 24 satellites that now can tell everyone where he or she is in the world (the initial constellation cost $12 billion to put into orbit). The operating cost works out
