Lists and Stories
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âO Captain! My Captain!â On the evening of April 14, 1865, as the U.S. Civil War wound to a close, Pres. Abraham Lincoln and his wife went to Washingtonâs Fordâs Theatre to see the comedy Our American Cousin. There, in his box, the president was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln died the next morning. After a... -
Ocean Acidification: How Carbon Dioxide Is Hurting the Seas The Keeling Curve is one of climatologyâs most enduring and useful tools. Itâs a graph that has tracked seasonal and annual changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations since 1958 at Hawaiiâs Mauna Loa Observatory. The curve shows that average concentrations increased from about 316... -
5 Famous Border Walls While border walls date back to ancient times, they have become of particular note in the 21st century, which has seen a dramatic increase in their number. Proponents claim that they limit illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and terrorism. Critics, however, assert that walls are ineffective and... -
Olympics: A Survey of Banned Substances The use of performance-enhancing drugs among athletes competing in the Olympic Games is not newâas early as 1904, American runner Thomas Hicks was given doses of strychnine during the marathon at the Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. He ended up winning the race after the first-place finisher... -
Olympics: Artistic Gymnastics With qualifications beginning on August 6, 2016, artistic gymnastics is a highly anticipated international sport. Artistic gymnastics is a separate Olympic sport from rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline, with events including floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal... -
Olympics: Athletics Olympic athletics begins in Rio de Janeiro with the preliminary competitions. The popular sport known widely as track and field has especially high stakes this Olympic Games as returning champions and world-record breakers prepare to defend their titles. Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt is the favorite... -
Olympics: Basketball Basketball has been played at the Olympic Games for 80 years and is the rare team spectator sport that maintains its popularity when played at the Games. Although arguably as popular (or more popular) worldwide, baseball lasted just 16 years as an official Olympic sport (although it has been added... -
Olympics: Boon or Curse? In September 2015 the International Olympic Committee announced five candidate cities for the 2024 Summer Olympics: Rome, Hamburg, Paris, Budapest, and Los Angeles. However, hosting the Olympics has lost some of its luster. Of the five cities, Hamburg withdrew its bid in November 2015 after a... -
Olympics: Cycling Cycling has been a part of the Olympic Games since the first modern Summer Olympics in 1896. Though there are four different cycling disciplines included as eventsâroad, track, mountain bike, and bicycle motocross (BMX)âthe only style of competition to be featured is racing (that means there are no... -
Olympics: Equestrian Three equestrian disciplines are featured at the Rio Olympics in both team and individual events: dressage, jumping, and eventing (the equine triathlon). Each discipline has its roots in the military. In fact, until 1948 only military officers were allowed to compete in equestrian Olympic events.... -
Olympics: Football (Soccer) Whether you call it football or soccer, one thing is certain: it is the worldâs most popular sport. According to some estimates, there are at least three billion football fans worldwide. The final of the 2018 menâs World Cup was watched by more than 3.5 billion TV viewers, while the womenâs... -
Olympics: Martial Arts Fighting sports were among the first contests to be included in the ancient Olympic Games. Only footraces predated wrestling, which was introduced in 708 BCE, and boxing made its debut as an event 20 years later. In 648 BCE pankration, an ancient precursor to modern mixed martial arts, became an... -
Olympics: New Sports for 2016 The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro welcome back two sports to the Games: golf and rugby. Both sports earned enough votes at the 121st International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Copenhagen in 2009 to beat out baseball, karate, roller sports, squash, and softball for the two coveted... -
Olympics: Racket Sports Tennis, badminton, and table tennis are the three racket sports featured during the Summer Olympics. Though all three have different origins and rules, the racket sports are bonded by their use of the handy projectile hitter that gives the grouping its name. Similar games have been played since... -
Olympics: The Genetics of Success For decades, athletes have run, jumped, skated, and skied their way into Olympic history. The rest of us watch with wonder, stunned by their unbelievable achievements, left struggling to grasp the reality of their physical feats. To us, many Olympians seem like anomalies in the human continuum,... -
Olympics: Volleyball Volleyball was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1964, but before it became a competitive worldwide sport, it was a simple game developed at a Young Menâs Christian Association (YMCA) community center. In the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1895, William Morgan decided to create a new indoor... -
What Allied Troops Encountered at Omaha Beach During the Normandy Invasion This infographic offers a description of the obstacles Allied forces faced on a typical section of Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion. In the ocean below the low-tide line were a line of log posts (some with mines affixed) followed by a line of hedgehogs, five-foot-tall obstacles made of... -
Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light Developed in the early 2000s, optogeneticsâthe combined use of genetic and optical (light) methods to control genes and neuronsâis among the most rapidly advancing technologies in neuroscience and has the potential to revolutionize how scientists study the brain. With precisely timed pulses of... -
Order in the Court: 10 âTrials of the Centuryâ The spectacle of the driven prosecutor, the impassioned defense attorney, and the accused, whose fate hangs in the balance, has received ample treatment in literature, on stage, and on the silver screen. More than once such events have been excitedly referred to as "the trial of the century!" But... -
Wee Worlds: Our 5 (Official) Dwarf Planets There was much outrage and confusion in 2006 when Pluto lost its status as our solar systemâs ninth planet. But we didnât just lose a planetâwe gained five dwarf planets! The term dwarf planet is defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as "a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around...