The camel-mounted warriors of Nabataea were so skilled that they brutally slayed nearly 4,600 Greek soldiers during a single battle in 312 B.C. The Nabataean merchants held a monopoly on Silk Road trade at the crossroads of Africa, Europe and Asia for hundreds of years. And the Nabataean porters had secret reservoirs of water and supplies that only the Nabataeans could find.Then, in A.D. 106, the great civilization of Nabataea “peacefully” came to an end. Or did it? According to ancient Roma ...read more
It’s a familiar and seemingly logical argument: Social media makes us less social. We’re hooked to our phones at the expense of going out into the real world and interacting with other people.And according to Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies and director of the Relationships and Technology Lab at the University of Kansas, the concept even has a name: the social displacement hypothesis.“The social displacement hypothesis is probably the most well-known, long-lasting explan ...read more
It all started with a cloud of dust and gas.Long before the Earth or anything else in the solar system existed — indeed, before there even was a solar system — there was a massive molecular cloud. Dark and dense, it was nevertheless full of crucial amounts of certain elements and tiny but useful dust particles.It’s from this ancient and fortuitous cloud that a blazing, life-sustaining sphere was ultimately born. The ancient Romans knew it as “Sol,” which today remains the scientific na ...read more
When flying thousands of miles, birds often make pitstops to recharge on food and energy.New research shows that the birds making these twice-yearly journeys may be doing more than filling their bellies and resting their wings: Their immune systems may need a boost to keep the birds from succumbing to disease or infection.“These birds basically run 100 marathons — they are super athletes,” says Cas Eikenaar, an ecologist at the Institute of Avian Research in northern Germany. “They make ...read more
For more than 4,300 years, the Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest human-made structure on Earth. Standing 481 feet, the Great Pyramid lost its title of the tallest in the world after the completion of the Washington Monument in 1885. Today it stands at about 450 feet after losing about 31 feet from the top. The Great Pyramid has long fascinated scholars, scientists and amateur Egyptologists. As old as it is, much of the Great Pyramid remains a mystery. Now new technologies are helping sci ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
