The Last Victim of Smallpox
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 12, 2019
In the summer of 1978, the World Health Organization stood on the brink of a remarkable achievement—smallpox, the disease that terrorized pe...
Kongo Gumi: The 1,400-Year-Old Company
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 9, 2019
Less than two months ago, the renowned British travel agency Thomas Cook laid off more than 21,000 employees the world over and liquidated i...
The Historic Hanford Reactor That Made Plutonium For The Nagasaki Bomb
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 7, 2019
Sitting squarely in the middle of the now decommissioned Hanford Site, a nuclear production complex on the Columbia River near Richland, Was...
The Century Old ‘Dream Mine’ That’s Yet to Produce Gold
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 6, 2019
On the foothills of Wasatch Mountains, east of Salem, in the US state of Utah, is a mine waiting for a miracle. The mine was first excavate...
Bridges With Buildings—Part 2
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 5, 2019
During the Middle Ages, it was common to have buildings built on top of bridges. These spaces were rented out to shopkeepers and merchants, ...
The Legend of The Lost Cement Mine
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 5, 2019
Gold mining in California. Lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1871. Image courtesy: Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com Hundreds of million...
Why Mediaeval Europeans Slept Inside Boxes
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 1, 2019
For much of human history, privacy during bedtime was an alien concept. Many poor families lived in small houses, where there was only one o...
The Berlin Candy Bomber
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 31, 2019
Following the end of World War 2, Germany was broken up and divided among the Allies as one divides war booty. The western half was occupie...
That Time When Britain Had Its Own Rocket
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 30, 2019
For a country as technological advanced as Great Britain, it sounds almost implausible when you say that the British do not have a space pr...
The Abandoned Mansions of Bishops Avenue
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 29, 2019
Bishops Avenue, in North London, dubbed the “Billionaire's Row” is one of the wealthiest streets in the world. The average value of a pr...
Soda Locomotives
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 29, 2019
An interesting type of locomotive engine that found very brief and limited use in Europe, as well as in America, was the soda locomotive. ...
The Submarine Sunk By Her Own Torpedo
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 28, 2019
The U.S. Navy submarine USS Tang off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, December 1943. Photo credit: U.S. Navy Throughout the Second W...
The Crinkle-Crankle Walls of Suffolk
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 28, 2019
A crinkle-crankle wall is an unusual type of garden wall found in the East Anglia region of east England, but popular mostly in the county...
Reindeer’s Eyes Change Color With Seasons
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 25, 2019
All animals, including humans, can adapt their eyes to the changing level of light. In dark conditions, muscles in the irises contract to di...
The White Volcanoes of Harrat Khaybar
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 25, 2019
Of the millions of pilgrims that visit the holy city of Medina, in Saudi Arabia, every year to pray in the Prophet’s Mosque, few people are ...
The Goiânia Radiological Accident
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 24, 2019
A radiation therapy unit in a hospital. Photo credit: Thomas Hecker/Shutterstock.com Radioactive isotopes have a very niche use in medicin...
Rotary Jails
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 23, 2019
Some problems require ingenious solutions. The rotary jail was not one of them. Designed by two American engineers, William H. Brown and Be...
Carl Wilhelm Scheele: The Unlucky Chemist
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 22, 2019
You know Bad Luck Brian. Now let me tell you about Hard-Luck Scheele. Carl Wilhelm Scheele was born in 1742 in Stralsund, in present day Ge...
The Cavern of Lost Souls
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 22, 2019
Just how difficult can it be to tow an old car to the junkyard to be dismantled, crushed and recycled? Too much, if you ask the council of C...
Bayan Obo: The Chinese Mine That Makes All Gadgets Possible
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 19, 2019
In the image above , captured by NASA’s Terra satellite in June 2006, we see some deep scars in the desert—the result of nearly sixty years...
