Why We Dream: What Science Actually Knows
In 1953 Eugene Aserinsky, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, and his supervisor Nathaniel Kleitman reported something odd in the journal Science. Several times a nig…
History worth knowing.
In-depth history writing on the leaders, empires & independence movements that shaped the world — plus science, mystery & technology.
Compound Interest: The Math That Quietly Builds Fortunes
Albert Einstein is often quoted as calling compound interest the eighth wonder of the world, or the most powerful force in the universe. Th…
How Time Zones Actually Work (and Why China Has Only One)
On 18 November 1883, American and Canadian railways switched from local time to four standard time zones. Until then, each town had set its…
The Library of Alexandria: What Was Actually Lost?
According to the physician Galen, writing in the second century CE, the Ptolemaic king Ptolemy III once asked Athens to lend him the offici…
How Strong Is Your Password, Really? The Math of Cracking
In 2011 the webcomic xkcd compared two passwords. One was Tr0ub4dor&3, a dictionary word with a capital letter, a few letters swapped f…
Göbekli Tepe: The Temple That Rewrote Human History
In 1963 a survey team from the universities of Istanbul and Chicago walked over a low hill near Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey, noted the…
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