鈥淭ruth serum鈥 refers to various drugs that have been used in attempts to extract truthful statements from people. Wine was the basic method for extraction during ancient times, however, the first...
In Roman times slaves were used to mine salt. It was not a pleasant chore. But today in the Ukraine some people willingly spend several hours a day in a salt mine. They are not there, though, to...
On a fall day in 1991, two Germans hiking in the Alps near the Italian- Austrian border stumbled across what they initially believed to be a modern corpse frozen in the ice. Once the body was...
The science of geyser eruptions was worked out by none other than Robert Bunsen-聽of burner fame. Actually Bunsen did not invent the burner but did improve upon existing equipment by showing that...
Influenza is a nasty illness. It isn鈥檛 just a bad cold. This viral infection kills up to half a million people in the world every year. And that鈥檚 in a good year. In a bad year, like 1968, the Hong...
Woodrow Wilson鈥檚 secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan, was ridiculed in 1913 for serving Welch鈥檚 grape juice instead of wine at a dinner honoring the British ambassador. This proved to be...
Back in the 1930s a flower merchant with a greenhouse full of carnations got worried when the weather forecast called for extremely cold temperatures. So he placed a kerosene burner in the...
At least in a manner of speaking.聽When Hernan Cortez came to America in 1518 he was intrigued by the beautifully coloured Aztec fabrics, particularly the stunning reds.聽He asked the natives about...