Lists and Stories

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  HIV/AIDS: Just the Facts What we know about one of the worst pandemics in human history. Companion, HIV, AIDS, HIV/AIDS, human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, disease, virus, AIDS crisis, epidemic, retrovirus, antiretroviral,...
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  Holi: Festival of Colors Every spring, people across India and around the world celebrate the Hindu festival Holi, throwing colored water and powders on one another in joyous celebration. On this one day—the full-moon day of the Hindu month of Phalguna—societal rankings such as caste, gender, age, and status are eschewed...
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  Honoring Nelson Mandela Britannica remembers Nelson Mandela. spotlight, nelson mandela, history, south africa, in...
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  Horseshoe Crab: A Key Player in Ecology, Medicine, and More During evenings of the full and new moons in the months of May and June, horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) spawn along the beaches of estuaries of several Mid-Atlantic states. Delaware Bay, an estuary separating Delaware from New Jersey, plays host to the world’s largest horseshoe crab...
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  Why New York Is Called "The Big Apple" and How 8 Other Famous Cities Got Their Nicknames Many cities are known by nicknames. But why? Here’s how nine of the world’s most famous cities earned their iconic monikers. list, geography, nicknames, major cities, famous cities, citiesNew York City is known by many nicknames—such as “the City that Never Sleeps” or “Gotham”—but the most popular...
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  How a Rejected Block of Marble Became the World’s Most Famous Statue At the start of the 16th century the Opera del Duomo—the committee of officials in charge of the decoration and maintenance of the Florence cathedral—had a tricky unfinished project on its hands. A document from 1501 refers to a massive barely begun statue, “a certain man of marble, named David,...
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  How Albert Einstein Developed the Theory of General Relativity In 1907, two years after the publication of his theory of special relativity, Albert Einstein came to a key realization: special relativity could not be applied to gravity or to an object undergoing acceleration. Imagine someone inside a closed room sitting on Earth. That person can feel Earth’s...
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  How Are Currency Exchange Rates Determined? If you travel internationally, you most likely will need to exchange your own currency for that of the country you are visiting. The amount of money you’ll get for a given amount of your country’s currency is based on internationally determined exchange rates. Exchange rates can be either fixed or...
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  How Do Hurricanes Get Their Names? In meteorology, hurricanes and typhoons are regional names for tropical cyclones, and individual storms of each type are named by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which maintains rotating lists of names. These premade lists are made up of easy-to-remember male and female first names,...
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  How Are Hurricanes and Typhoons Named? The practice of naming storms has a long history. Before the 20th century, notable tropical cyclones (also called typhoons or hurricanes, depending on geography) were generally identified by the time when they occurred or the location where they struck. Thus, the San Mateo Hurricane of 1565—which,...
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  How Are Sports Chosen for the Olympics? The Olympic Games have expanded from 241 to more than 10,000 competitors since the original reestablishment in Athens with the 1896 Games. Dozens of additions and changes have been made in the Olympic program since 1896, with almost 100 events being added since 1980 alone. Although enthusiasts of...
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  How Bob Odenkirk Became Bob Odenkirk “I’ve done all these different things, and there’s been a great degree of failure,” Bob Odenkirk told The New York Times a few months after he died—for 18 minutes, at least—while filming Better Call Saul. Nowadays Odenkirk is best known for the role he was playing the day that his heart stopped:...
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  How Botanical Gardens Save Plants with Science Many people think of botanical gardens as little more than highly landscaped parks. Full of beauty and peace, botanical gardens are indeed perfect for a few hours to yourself, and many of them were initially designed for aesthetics alone. However, most modern botanical gardens have evolved to...
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  How Can Some Trees Survive for Thousands of Years? Some of the oldest living things on our remarkable planet are trees. The record holders are bristlecone pines of the western United States, quite a few of which are known to be more than 3,000 years old. One individual, discovered in 2012, is estimated to be more than 5,060 years old, making it the...
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  How Deadly Are Australia’s Animals? Even more than for its gorgeous opera house, sandy beaches, or colourful reefs, Australia has cemented its reputation as home to some of the world’s deadliest animals. Or, if you believe the rumours, maybe even all of the world’s deadliest animals. The numbers tell a different story. It is...
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  How Deadly Is Quicksand? It used to be a standard trope in action movies, although you don’t see it much these days: a patch of apparently solid ground in the jungle that, when stepped on, turns out to have the consistency of cold oatmeal. The unlucky victim starts sinking down into the muck; struggling only makes it...
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  How did Albert Camus die? In the afternoon on January 4, 1960, French philosopher Albert Camus, author of The Stranger (1942) and The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), was riding in the front passenger seat of a Facel Vega driven by his friend and publisher’s nephew, Michel Gallimard. Camus and Gallimard were returning to Paris...
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  How Did Alexander the Great Really Die? Today we know all about what happens to our bodies after we die. Changes begin immediately after death, beginning with the body temperature cooling. Within a few hours the movement of damaged blood cells causes discolouration in the skin; in the same time frame rigor mortis sets in, making the body...
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  How did Greek culture influence Hadrian? Before being named Trajan’s successor as Roman emperor, Hadrian spent a period of time in Athens, likely from the end of his consulship in 108 CE until he was appointed legatus (“general”) of the Syrian province in 117. In his youth he was affectionately known as Graeculus (“little Greek”) on...
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  How Did Helen Keller Fly a Plane? In June 1946 an airplane traveled from Rome to Paris, crossing over the Mediterranean Sea. There was nothing unusual about this flight except one thing: for 20 minutes of the plane’s journey, one of its passengers became its pilot. The passenger was Dr. Helen Keller, an American author, educator,...