Why Does a Circle Have 360 Degrees?
Why 360 and not 100? The popular Babylonian answer doesn’t hold up. The real trail runs from ancient account books to the night sky.
Why Roman Concrete Lasts So Long (and Why It Isn’t Simply Better)
The Pantheon’s dome is about 1,900 years old, cracked and has no steel. Why does Roman concrete survive when it isn’t stronger than ours?
The Worst Fluid to Drown in: The Great Molasses Flood
In 1919 a wave of molasses swept down a Boston street at about 35 miles an hour. How did something so slow become so deadly?
The Great Emu War: Did Emus Really Beat the Australian Army?
In 1932, three soldiers took two machine guns after an estimated 20,000 emus. Why is it remembered as the war the emus won?
Why Didn’t Everyone Escape Pompeii? The Long Hours Before the End
Pompeii didn’t die in a flash. Pumice fell for about eighteen hours, and the danger kept changing. Here is why leaving was never a simple choice.
Why Don’t We Have 13 Months? The True Story of the 13-Month Calendar
Thirteen equal months, every 13th a Friday. Why Cotsworth’s plan, Kodak’s four-week accounting periods and a League of Nations inquiry never changed ours.
Why Do We Have Time Zones? Trains, Two Noons and a French Law
Noon once belonged to your own town. How railways, a family who sold the time and a day with two noons gave us time zones.
How Did Ancient Humans Survive Winter? Fire, Fat, Fur and Friends in the Ice Age
Minus twenty, a howling wind, eight hours of daylight. How did Ice Age people get through winter? Fire, fat, fitted fur and other people.
What Was a Normal Day Like in the Stone Age? The Work the “15-Hour Week” Left Out
The famous 15-hour week counted food trips in one camp in 1964. Here’s the rest of a forager’s day: hidden work, shared food, night stories and sleep.
Why Are We the Only Human Species Left? What the Clues Say About the Others
Around 60,000 years ago, at least three kinds of human lived, probably four. Why only us today? Their fossils and surviving DNA offer clues.
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