William Clark’s Expensive Folly
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2018
In late 19th century New York, on an avenue dubbed the “Millionaire’s Colony”, there stood an insanely ornate house belonging to the wealthy...
Demon Core: How The Third Nuclear Bomb Destined For Japan Killed a Bunch of American Scientists
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2018
President Harry S. Truman knew that one bomb would not be enough to force Japan to surrender, so he ordered two. What many don’t know is tha...
A Nature Park in an Abandoned Railway Yard in Berlin
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 13, 2018
For more than a century, the Anhalter Bahnhof was the most important railway station in Berlin. Located at the heart of the German capital, ...
John Lethbridge’s Diving Machine
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 12, 2018
This strange apparatus hanging at the Cité de la Mer museum in Cherbourg, France, looks like some kind of a medieval torture device, but is...
The Tale of The Exploding Whale
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2018
Beached whales sometimes spontaneously explode due to build up of gases, mostly methane, as the carcass decomposes. Occasionally, whale carc...
The True Story Behind ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2018
The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is well known. This dark European folktale with unsettling themes of ingratitude and terrible vengean...
James Nasmyth’s Fake Lunar Photographs From 1874
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 8, 2018
In 1874, an astronomer and an inventor together published one of the most influential books of the time on lunar geology, titled The Moon: C...
Barbarastollen: The Underground Archive Where Germany’s Cultural Heritage Lives
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 7, 2018
On the western edge of Black Forest, deep into the mountains where miners once quarried for silver, lies Germany’s cultural heritage. It’s h...
The World’s Largest Vacuum Chamber
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 6, 2018
At the 6,400-acre Plum Brook Field Station complex near Sandusky, Ohio, stands five large test facilities operated by NASA to test various a...
San Petronio Basilica: The Church That Ticked The Pope Off
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 4, 2018
Dominating the central square in the city of Bologna is one of the world’s largest church with a unique mismatched façade that has been intr...
