When the roller coaster at Coney Island first debuted in 1884, thrill seekers climbed aboard a ride that scaled a 15-foot hill and sped at four miles per hour.Modern coasters can reach heights of 300 feet and speeds of 90 miles per hour. They drop riders suddenly or jerk them backward. Riders twist, fly upside down and return to the start within mere minutes.Scientists are learning more about what happens to the body during roller coaster rides. The twists and turns are harmless for most peopl ...read more
This article was originally published on April 22, 2020.Organizers of the first Earth Day reportedly scheduled the event on a Wednesday to avoid conflicting with the “weekend activities” that college students enjoyed.That must have been the right call. That April 22, 1970, hundreds of campuses across the country hosted lectures, protests and clean-ups, alongside citywide events in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Why Was the First Earth Day Important?The environmental movement has changed ...read more
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
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
