John Lethbridge’s Diving Machine
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 12, 2018
This strange apparatus hanging at the Cité de la Mer museum in Cherbourg, France, looks like some kind of a medieval torture device, but is...
The Tale of The Exploding Whale
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2018
Beached whales sometimes spontaneously explode due to build up of gases, mostly methane, as the carcass decomposes. Occasionally, whale carc...
The True Story Behind ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2018
The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is well known. This dark European folktale with unsettling themes of ingratitude and terrible vengean...
James Nasmyth’s Fake Lunar Photographs From 1874
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 8, 2018
In 1874, an astronomer and an inventor together published one of the most influential books of the time on lunar geology, titled The Moon: C...
Barbarastollen: The Underground Archive Where Germany’s Cultural Heritage Lives
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 7, 2018
On the western edge of Black Forest, deep into the mountains where miners once quarried for silver, lies Germany’s cultural heritage. It’s h...
The World’s Largest Vacuum Chamber
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 6, 2018
At the 6,400-acre Plum Brook Field Station complex near Sandusky, Ohio, stands five large test facilities operated by NASA to test various a...
San Petronio Basilica: The Church That Ticked The Pope Off
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 4, 2018
Dominating the central square in the city of Bologna is one of the world’s largest church with a unique mismatched façade that has been intr...
The Hitachi Tree of Moanalua Gardens
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 1, 2018
About 5 miles northwest of downtown Honolulu, is a 24-acre privately-owned park called Moanalua Gardens, best known for its annual Prince Lo...
Tarpeian Rock: The Cliff Romans Threw Their Traitors From
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 30, 2018
The ancient Romans used a variety of horrific methods to execute those condemned to death for crimes ranging from rape and murder, to adulte...
Hotel Belvédère: The Iconic Swiss Hotel on The Edge of The Rhone Glacier
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 29, 2018
Located in one of the snowiest regions in Switzerland, the Furka Pass, connecting the cantons of Uri and Valais in the country’s south-centr...
Halifax Gibbet: The Infamous Forerunner to The Guillotine
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 27, 2018
Standing inconspicuously in the middle of an empty plot behind some trees, in the small English town of Halifax, in West Yorkshire, is a fea...
The Boot Monument: How America Remembers Its Most Infamous Traitor
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 27, 2018
At the Saratoga National Historical Park in New York is an American Revolutionary War memorial depicting a single boot sculpted in stone. Th...
The Salt Mining Elephants of Mount Elgon
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 26, 2018
Large herbivores such as elephants often seek out natural mineral deposits such as rocks and soil to supplement their dietary intake of sod...
The Collapse of Marib Dam And The Fall of an Empire
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 26, 2018
Near the ancient city of Marib, in Yemen, lies the ruins of a great dam. Considered to be one of the biggest engineering wonders of the anci...
Wrangel Island: The Island of Polar Bears And Wooly Mammoth
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 22, 2018
Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean, is one of the most remote islands in Russia. Straddling the International Date Line—the boundary where ...
The 4,000-Year-Old Termite Mounds The Size of Britain
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 21, 2018
In the seasonally dry, deciduous forests of northeastern Brazil, obscured by walls of thorny-scrubs, is a vast landscape made up of tens of ...
A Barrel Post Office, Mysterious Disappearances and Moby Dick: The Strange History of Floreana Island
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 21, 2018
The Galapagos islands in the Pacific Ocean were once natural stopovers for 18-century whalers, who were drawn to the remote islands by fresh...
Schwerer Gustav: The World’s Biggest Gun Ever Built
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 19, 2018
Hitler sure had some grand ideas—from mass murdering Jews and conquering Europe, to rebuilding Berlin and draining the Mediterranean sea . ...
“The Miraculous Journey” By Damien Hirst
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 19, 2018
A series of fourteen monumental bronze sculptures chronicling the gestation of a fetus inside a womb, from conception to birth, is one of th...
Why Iceland Imports Ice From Other Countries
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 17, 2018
The name Iceland is a misnomer. In reality, the country is stunningly green, especially during summer, and only about ten percent of Iceland...
