Elephant of The Bastille
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 14, 2021
Between 1814 and 1846, there stood a colossal plaster elephant in the heart of Paris, at the site of the former Bastille prison. For much of...
Showing posts with the label Featured
Why The Soviet Union Lied About Yuri Gagarin's Historic Space Flight
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 12, 2021
Exactly sixty years ago, on April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome taking along cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on the first ever...
The Chapati Movement of 1857
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 8, 2021
The year was 1857. A storm was brewing in British-occupied India. There was growing resentment among the Indians against the rule of the Eas...
Zwentendorf, The Nuclear Power Plant That Was Never Turned On
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 6, 2021
The Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant, located on the bank of the Danube River, about 20 miles northwest of Vienna, is Austria’s only nuclear ...
How Rubber Ducks Are Helping Scientists Chart The Oceans
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 2, 2021
In early January 1992, the container ship Evergreen Ever Laurel departed Hong Kong for Washington. Among the millions of things that Ever L...
Hunley: The Submarine That Wouldn’t Stay Afloat
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 30, 2021
On 17 February 1864, the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley attacked and sank a 1,240-ton United States Navy ship, the USS Housatonic , and e...
Copenhagen’s Potato Row
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 26, 2021
In the heart of Copenhagen, not far from the harbor, are a series of closely laid streets with houses smashed together like rows of potato p...
The Mercy Dogs of World War 1
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 26, 2021
Dogs have accompanied men to war since ancient times, as scouts, sentries, trackers and messengers. But the most unique role they ever playe...
DC-X: The Rocket That Beat SpaceX by 20 Years
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 23, 2021
Twenty years before modern spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin began designing rockets that launch and land vertically, the DC...
Maliwawa Figures: A Rock Art Style Like No Other
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 19, 2021
Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, has a remarkable range and number of rock art sites, rivalling that of Europe, southern Africa and ...
The Disease That Turns Muscles Into Bones
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 18, 2021
Behind a glass enclosure at the Mutter Museum of The College of Physicians in Philadelphia is a terrifying exhibit—two human skeletons. Thei...
Guarapari’s Radioactive Beaches
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 17, 2021
About 50 km south of Vitória, the state capital of Espírito Santo, in southeastern Brazil, lies the coastal town of Guarapari, a popular tou...
Heroic War Pigeons
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 16, 2021
World War One, and to some extent, the Second World War, was a strange blend of archaic and modern technology. The First World War, in parti...
When California Was Thought To Be An Island
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 15, 2021
If California were a country its economy would be the fifth largest in the world. Yet the tech boom is not the starkest way California has e...
How a Failed Dam Legalized Marrying The Dead
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 12, 2021
Sitting low among the hills, just north of the city of Frejus, in southern France, not far from the French Riviera coast, are the broken rem...
The Octagon Houses of Orson Fowler
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 10, 2021
Orson Fowler wanted to design the best house, but he detested the traditional boxy shapes. Too many right angles, he thought. In his mind, t...
Conrad Haas: The 16th Century Rocket Pioneer
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 9, 2021
In 1961, a professor at the University of Bucharest, made a surprising discovery in the archives of the city of Sibiu, in Romania. It was a ...
Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 5, 2021
Unlike a submarine that can lurk beneath the waves, or an artillery tank that can camouflage itself among trees and the surrounding terrain,...
Pisonia: The Tree That Kills Birds
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 4, 2021
An overwhelming majority of plants depend upon birds and insects for seed dispersal. Plants attract pollinators by releasing aromatic compou...
The Lakeview Gusher: The Mother of Oil Spills
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 3, 2021
In the early days of oil drilling, when tools were basic and technology was lacking, every new oil well sunk into the ground ran the risk of...
