Division of Historic Services
It’s much easier now to gain fame. But it’s harder to last. You know, I want to be famous like the Kardashians who are famous for just being famous. Fame, in its earliest forms, is some sense that human beings need something beyond themselves. So they almost invented gods as a way of explaining what …
Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I’m Dr. F. Perry Wilson. One of the more macabre aspects of the coronavirus epidemic are the variety of studies predicting how many individuals will die of the disease. Macabre, yes, but necessary as no other metric holds as much power …
If you had been born in the U.S. in the year nineteen-hundred, when the three leading causes of death were all infectious diseases – pneumonia and flu, tuberculosis and gastrointestinal infections – your life expectancy would have been just over forty-seven years. In the year twenty-ten, the leading causes of death were chronic diseases like …
Chocolate… food of the gods! That’s the Greek meaning of Theobroma cacao, the name of the tree that provides it. For a plant which is notoriously difficult to cultivate, its takeover of global tastes is decidedly impressive. Although not sold in Britain until the 1650s, its history goes back about 2,500 years before that, when …
What you need Recycled card, paper, hole punch, stick, rubber band, scissors STEP 1 Create Fold the card in half and cut to the same size as your paper Place your paper stack inside the card Punch two holes through the card and paper Make sure the stick covers both holes Thread one end of …
It all starts with a virus, deep within someone’s body, and a stray genetic mutation. The virus is a member of the Human Parainfluenza family, and initially is nothing more than a run of the mill- if more severe- flu-like illness. However as the virus replicates inside its host, a stray genetic mutation breeds a …
– [Narrator] Wind whips over a barren wasteland. Vast nothingness as far as the eye can see, or so it may seem. Creatures peek out of burrows, scurry across the sand, and soar through the sky, revealing a landscape not as lifeless as it might first appear. Deserts are often defined as areas of land …
[♩INTRO] In the mid-1800s, factories began mass-producing matches. Lots of them were hugely successful, and pretty soon, they were selling millions of matchboxes a year. And then the factory workers — many of whom were young women — started dying. The symptoms would often start with a toothache and jaw pain and then progress to …
Thanks to Brilliant for supporting this episode of SciShow. Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow to learn more. [ intro ] Now we all know that there is lot’s of important infectious disease science happening right now and three cheers for the people doing that work. So do today for Scishow News, there will be breaking news, but …
The world we live in can seem pretty illogical. The things people say, the ways we behave, the complex choices we have to make. HE SHOUTS What’s the quickest way to get home? Can I trust any of you lot? Where did you all come from? That process of making sense of all this stuff, …