As a field of study, chemistry has existed for as long as we can remember. In the early days, alchemists used to study the chemical composition of materials to understand their properties, which could then be used for various applications in the real world. That’s essentially what lab chemists do today, only with modern tools…
Author: Himanshu Sharma
There’s no dearth of ‘expert’ advice on fitness and exercise out there. From fitness bloggers to celebrities to that friend that recently joined a gym and can’t stop talking about it, almost everyone seems to know everything about how to work out and achieve the best results. Of course, not all of that information is…
By some estimates, between one and five million people are bitten by poisonous snakes around the world every year, and around one-fifth of them end up dying. That number is definitely a lot lower than most of our history – as snakes have always been dangerous for our species – though it’s still uncomfortably high.…
All of us have grown up reading about the most prominent scientists and mathematicians from history, such as Einstein, Newton, Archimedes, Marie Curie, Pythagoras, Darwin and the like. These names reverberate throughout history not just for the weight of their discoveries and inventions, but also for fundamentally shaping up our collective understanding of the world. …
The human body is one of the most complex and advanced things devised by evolution, and yet, we think that we know everything about it. Thanks to misconceptions in the media and old scientific beliefs, many of us still believe a number of ‘facts’ about our own bodies that have little to no basis in…
Oceans cover about 71% of Earth’s surface, and yet, there’s so much we don’t know about them. As we breach new frontiers in space exploration and prepare to launch for the stars, we’ve somehow still not managed to even scratch the surface of this vast realm right here on Earth. The deep sea, in particular,…
History is often mistaken to be facts. In reality, it is – at best – the most reliable version of what happened after studying various perspectives from that time. Historical records are often not objective, and biased accounts of historical events, often favoring whoever wrote them. Verifying these various – often conflicting – accounts is…
In the past few decades, warfare has changed in more ways than we can count. Gone are the days of vast organized armies facing off in a series of battles until one of them is decisively defeated, settling the matter once and for all. Modern war is asymmetric and unending, waged by nameless, stateless actors…
Our understanding of health and healthcare has come a long way from the old days, when the most common treatment for most medical problems was just ‘not worrying about it’. Thanks to the medical advancements of the past few centuries, the average person now knows much more about healthcare than any other time in history.…
Espionage is perhaps as old as war itself. From infiltrating an enemy camp to kill the general, to general intelligence gathering, espionage tactics have largely remained the same throughout most of history. As warfare evolved and entered the modern era, however, so did the tools and techniques of espionage. Today, spies are equipped with far…
When we think of history, we think of unending periods of plagues, wars and general misery. While that’s an absolutely accurate assumption – as our species has gone through its fair share of horrors in the past – we forget that between all those bad times, we’ve also had some great, even if rare, moments of celebration and…
There’s no dearth of ‘expert’ advice on fitness and exercise out there. From fitness bloggers to celebrities to that friend that recently joined a gym and can’t stop talking about it, almost everyone seems to know everything about how to work out and achieve the best results. Of course, not all of that information is…
Fish are one of the most diverse species we know of, and you’d find them living in some of the most diverse places on Earth – from tropical rainforests to mountain rivers to densely-populated urban centers. While most fish are harmless underwater creatures that want to do nothing with you, there are some species that…
Contrary to what Game of Thrones would have us believe, exceptionally-skilled swordsmen have been few and far between in history. Unlike weapons like the bow and arrow and the spear, the sword takes an exceptional amount of skill to get good at. Even then, its use on the battlefield is limited, as it’s more suited…
Espionage is perhaps as old as war itself. From infiltrating an enemy camp to kill the general, to general intelligence gathering, espionage tactics have largely remained the same throughout most of history. As warfare evolved and entered the modern era, however, so did the tools and techniques of espionage. Today, spies are equipped with far…
When we think of history, we think of unending periods of plagues, wars and general misery. While that’s an absolutely accurate assumption – as our species has gone through its fair share of horrors in the past – we forget that between all those bad times, we’ve also had some great, even if rare, moments…
Compared to our ancestors, we’ve come a long way in our scientific understanding of our own species – especially in the last decade or so. With some unprecedented advances in fields like medicine, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology in the past few years, we’re now much closer to understanding our place in the universe – at…
The last decade may not have been the best time for everyone, though for science, it may have been our biggest leap into the future yet. With massive leaps in fields such as AI, quantum computing, space research and medicine, among countless others, we’re finally close to solving some of our world’s most enduring mysteries.…
The concept of buying and selling territory like a commodity has its complications, as territory isn’t merely property. It also includes its natural features, people, cultures, and many other things that come together to make up a settlement. Regardless, territory has been bought and sold throughout history, though it was the European colonial age when…
Covert weapons have been a part of warfare for as long as we can remember, though till recently, they were largely restricted to untraceable poisons found in nature or basically-assembled booby traps. It wasn’t until the Second World War – when espionage was established as a distinct military discipline – that covert weapons became as deadly as they are…
Picking the most well-planned cities in the world is not an easy task, as good planning involves many more factors than just wide roads and tall buildings. As cities around the world look for ways to deal with problems like rising sea levels and overpopulation, it’s all the more important to design our urban areas…
Most people think of our history as a consistently forward march towards civilization, as we achieved one landmark after another in various fields to reach where we are today. If you actually study history, though, you’d come to the conclusion that it’s actually made up of vast periods of absolutely nothing of note, and rare,…
Our modern, sophisticated understanding of explosions has been a long time in the making. From the Chinese to the Arabs to the Greeks, nearly every empire has contributed its fair share to the art of blowing things up. However, it’s only in the recent few decades that we’ve truly gained almost complete mastery over it.…
Picking the longest-lived empires in history is complicated, as most empires don’t have official start or end dates. Most successful empires – much like modern nations – were gradually built from small settlements over the years, sometimes even decades. Almost all of them ended over a span of many years or decades, too, making it…