Ecology

Eric Moussambani is the slowest swimmer in history: the solo Olympic 100m freestyle race in Sydney

Eric Moussambani is the slowest swimmer in history: the solo Olympic 100m freestyle race in Sydney

Eric Moussambani in his race in Sydney 2000 – Credit: @Olympics, via x.com Eric Moussambani Malonganicknamed “Eric the Eel,” went down in history as the slowest swimmer ever. We are at Sydney 2000 Olympicsin Sydney’s huge swimming stadium, where 17,000 spectators are enjoying the exploits of their home idol Ian Thorpe (5 medals including 3 gold with as many world ...

Is dry cleaning really “dry”? No, other liquid solvents are used instead of water

Is dry cleaning really “dry”? No, other liquid solvents are used instead of water

The term “dry cleaning”, or dry cleaning in English, indicates a fabric cleaning process carried out in non-aqueous solvents. Even if it makes us think of our clothes being “magically” washed without liquids, as if only gas or strange cleaning tricks were used, there is nothing magical about it. Actually, dry cleaning is not liquid-freebut it is free of water. ...

Who were the "muckrakers", American pioneers of investigative journalism who exposed scandals

Who were the “muckrakers”, American pioneers of investigative journalism who exposed scandals

With the deadline muckrakers we indicate a small group of investigative journalists (but also, to a lesser extent, writers and photographers) who, in the early years of the 20th century, attempted to change the way of reporting reality and its articulations, exposing corruption, scandals and social injustices on all fronts, from society to politics, from economics to finance. The objective ...

The art of Michaelina Wautier, the Flemish painter whose works were attributed to men, has been rediscovered

The art of Michaelina Wautier, the Flemish painter whose works were attributed to men, has been rediscovered

Michaelina Wautier, self-portrait with easel; via Wikimedia Commons You’ve probably never heard of Michaelina Wautier: for years, in fact, the paintings of this Flemish painter, active in central Europe in the mid-seventeenth century, have been attributed to male artists who were his contemporaries. Only recently has her work been rediscovered – as had already happened for other artists, including Artemisia ...

Why are we more inclined to take risks in adolescence? The neuroscientific explanation

Why are we more inclined to take risks in adolescence? The neuroscientific explanation

THE’adolescence it is universally recognized as a time of exploration, emotional intensity and, often, impulsive behavior. The statistics confirm the premonitions, showing a dramatic peak in dangerous behaviors and reckless such as reckless driving, substance abuse and unprotected sexual activity. Why do you consciously choose the “charm” of risk? Part of the answer lies in a peculiar “time window” of ...

Tricks to do multiplication in your head with faster calculations

Tricks to do multiplication in your head with faster calculations

There are tricks to do it multiplication in mindquickly, without resorting to column multiplication. In general it involves replacing a multiplication with simpler operations that give the same result, but some of them seem like magic tricks. Let’s see some of them, those that exploit simpler operations, the magic trick of multiplication by 11 and that of the product of ...

Largest data breach in history: WhatsApp bug exposed 3.5 billion accounts

Largest data breach in history: WhatsApp bug exposed 3.5 billion accounts

A flaw in the system with which WhatsApp identifies contacts in the address book has allowed a group of academics to rebuild a global database of over 3.5 billion active accounts. We are not talking about the content of the messages, which remained protected, but about an enormous amount of personal metadata (phone numbers, profile images, information texts and even ...

What does this open jar about cosmetics indicate and why is it important

What does this open jar about cosmetics indicate and why is it important

You know the image of a open jar on your favorite cream or cleanser? Inside there are usually written gods numbers. But what are they and what are they for? It’s about the PAO, Period After Openingi.e. the maximum period after opening in which the product is still safe to use. In fact, when they are still sealed, many cosmetics ...

Is it written all attached or separate? From “good morning” to “alright”: the words we get wrong most often

Is it written all attached or separate? From “good morning” to “alright”: the words we get wrong most often

Is it written “alongside” or “next to”? “In form” or “in form”? “OK” or “alright”? Beyond or afterlife? It often happens that many Italians have doubts about whether or not to write two terms by separating them (or interposing an apostrophe between them), and grammatical errors are the order of the day. The causes are to be found primarily in ...