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How engineers built highways directly on Arctic ice
[03:36] Why the Arctic Became the Cold War's Most Dangerous Border [04:44] The Extreme Challenge of Constructing Roads on Ice [05:49] The Physics Trick Behind the Floating Perched Road [08:26] Blasting Hidden Crevasses in the Arc…
Astronaut Jessica Meir answers questions from space
[01:06] Astronaut Calls Her Mom From Space [02:05] Why She Wanted to Become an Astronaut Since Age Five [05:24.800] Floating like Spider-Man on the Space Station [07:04.000] Getting Rejected by NASA Before Becoming an Astronaut […
What really happens when a hurricane pushes the ocean inland
[00:25] The Deadliest Threat in Any Hurricane [02:13] Surviving a 20-Foot Storm Surge in a Palm Tree [04:23] Why Some Coasts Flood While Others Only Get Waves [08:01] Why Scientists Search Inside Bathrooms After Hurricanes [08:15…
Short videoThe Wheel That Lifts Boats
Scotland's Falkirk Wheel carries boats between waterways in two water-filled chambers. One rises as the other falls. But why doesn't a boat upset the balance? A floating boat displaces its own weight in water. As it enters an ope…
How America saved its most dramatic wild frontier
[00:26] The Untouched Wilderness of Alaska [02:05.500] Why America Began Protecting Its Wildlife [05:40] The Comeback of the Aleutian Canada Goose [09:53] Massive Kodiak Brown Bears Hunting Salmon [12:19] Ancient Salmon Tradition…
VisualA tiny world, worn close
An opened wearable charm reveals a tiny imagined landscape, with the object and its miniature world as the whole visual focus. /media/aiimages/41e86a0d-7ace-4084-b0bb-8a405341d1af.png
Short videoWhy This Rhubarb Grows in Darkness
In Yorkshire, some rhubarb grows in dark sheds, then is traditionally harvested by candlelight. Darkness isn't its fuel. The secret is underground. For two to three years outdoors, its leaves use sunlight to build food reserves i…
How Mars mission plans approached biological contamination
How Mars mission plans approached biological contamination Mars planners faced a two-way risk: Earth microbes might contaminate Mars and obscure evidence of life, while returned Martian material or exposed crew might pose a conce…
Salyut 7: A Leaking Line, Repaired Step by Step
At Salyut 7, the space station, crews worked from an exterior platform mounted on Progress 20 and carried about 40 kilograms of tools. Repeated work on the propulsion system’s oxidizer piping, which carries oxidizer, did not stop…
What did Humboldt’s account describe inside the Guacharo cavern?
In The World of Wonders, the account is explicitly attributed to Humboldt’s Travels in South America. It leads a first-time reader along a riverbed through a green valley to a cave mouth described as an arch more than seventy fee…
VisualA breeze turns glass reeds into shifting colour
An imagined public artwork: tall glass reeds shift their arrangement as the wind passes, casting moving colours across the ground and nearby surfaces. /media/aiimages/26803fdb-537d-4f4a-b855-8d2958eb01b4.png
Short videoThe Planet Where Sunrise Reverses
From certain places on Mercury, the Sun can rise, sink below the horizon, then rise again. The trick is a slow spin and an oval-shaped orbit. Mercury turns once in about fifty-nine Earth days, while a trip around the Sun takes ab…
How America fought global epidemics before modern medicine
[00:53] The Forgotten 1798 Origin of the US Public Health Service [03:09] A 1930s Surgeon General on Preventing National Epidemics [05:07] How Modern Transportation Accelerated Contagion [06:41] Quarantine Officers Intercepting S…
Classic early talkie golf comedy from 1929
[04:08] Striking Oil from a Golf Bunker [05:53] Teeing Up on Giant Stilts [07:01] The Best Golf Course Divot Ever Tasted [07:30] The Worst Golf Lesson in History [10:43] The $10,000 Golf Bet Escalation [13:24] You Cannot Hit Them…
Walking the decks of the sunken USS Arizona
[00:54.000] The Flagpole Base of USS Arizona [02:25.500] Preserved Teak Wood Beneath Pearl Harbor [03:44] Where Pearl Harbor Survivors Return to Rest [06:43] Galley Tiles from December 7, 1941 [08:13] The Forgotten 14-Inch Cannon…
Short videoThe Fish That Sees Through Its Own Head
Those two dark spots above its mouth look like eyes, but they actually detect smells. The real eyes are the green shapes inside that clear, fluid-filled dome. They point upward, spotting faint silhouettes of food against the ligh…
Short videoThis Book Hides a Painting
At first, these golden page edges look ordinary, with no picture in sight. Gently fan the pages, and a hidden landscape appears. It's called fore-edge painting. Artists painted the pages while fanned, let them dry, then closed th…
Historic underwater tests that pushed human survival to the limit
[04:52] Emergency Helium Leak During SeaLab Lowering [06:54] Mercury Astronaut Enters Ocean Floor Habitat [09:11.260] First Call Between the Ocean Floor and Space [13:00] Why Matches Will Not Light Inside Sealab [13:37] Why Injur…