Ecology

July 12, 2026

Why we still celebrate weddings: the meaning of rites of passage between history and society

Credits: Jason.nlw. The contemporary wedding it is one of the most interesting institutions to analyze because it concentrates three dimensions that often do not coincide: legal function, social meaning and emotional investment. In the western world of 2026its normative function is in decline (fewer marriages, more cohabitations, greater instability of unions), but its ritual and symbolic function is, if possible, ...

July 12, 2026

How chemical toilets work: the blue liquid that doesn’t dissolve waste but controls bad odors

A concert, a party, a large outdoor event: these are all situations in which, at least once in our lives, we have found ourselves faced with a chemical bath. What looks like a simple container with a colored liquid is actually a small sanitization system designed to solve a very real problem: ensuring sanitation even in absence of a real ...

July 12, 2026

The tire or the tyre, the dumpling or the dumpling: the rule behind the use of the articles

The tire or the tyre? The dumpling or dumpling? Behind this doubt lies one of the most betrayed rules of the Italian language: the one that decides whether we must put the article “il” (or “un”) or “lo” (or “uno”) in front of a male name. The good news is that behind the four male articles (the for the definite, ...

July 12, 2026

French Southern and Antarctic Lands, an overseas community with 5 UNESCO heritage districts

The French Southern and Antarctic Lands, via Wikipedia Commons. Among the numerous overseas territoriesobtained during the long and complex colonial past, the France has a truly unique and singular one, which takes the name of French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Also known by the acronym of TAAF (Southern and French Antarctic Lands), are in reality a complex of territories far ...

July 11, 2026

After the case of the woman asleep at the wheel: where are we with autonomous driving in Italy?

Image created with AI for illustrative purposes The images of the woman asleep at the wheel while her car was driving along a Canadian highway with two children on board quickly made the rounds on the web, bringing a very widespread misunderstanding back to the center of attention: confusing driver assistance systems with true autonomous driving. Beyond the responsibilities of ...

July 11, 2026

The port of Gwadar is one of the most strategic in Pakistan, the hub of CPEC: the docks are over 600m long

The port of Gwadar in the Arabian Sea. The port of Gwadar, located on the coast of Arabian Seain the province of Baluchistan (Pakistan) is among the port infrastructures larger of the region. The place, a small fishing village, has in fact been transformed into a deep water port (deep-sea port) capable of accommodating ships of large tonnageserving as a ...

July 11, 2026

18 tombs from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods discovered in Egypt: a sarcophagus of 2.5m gold tongues found

Golden tongues which according to the funeral rite of the Greco-Roman era were placed in the mouths of the deceased. Credit: Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism. TO Marina El-Alameinon Egypt’s northwestern Mediterranean coast, about 300 kilometers from Cairo, archaeologists have unearthed 18 graves dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, dating back to 4th century BC and 4th AD, ...

July 11, 2026

A pair of jeans requires 3781 liters of water: how denim is produced and why it pollutes the environment

Generated with AI Linked to a long textile tradition that also goes through Genoa – city to which the term jeans is traditionally attributed, from the French Gênes – jeans have become a global icon. However, their production involves a considerable environmental impact: according to an analysis conducted by Levi Strauss & Co. on a pair of Levi’s 501, the ...

July 11, 2026

The best apps to find the perfect spot to see the solar eclipse of August 12, 2026

Image generated with AI for illustrative purposes only. The August 12, 2026 Europe will experience its first total solar eclipse since 2006: for just over a minute the Moon’s disk will completely cover that of the Sun, just before sunset, in a band that will cross the GreenlandtheEastern Iceland and above all the Central Spainfrom Asturias up to Valencia and ...

July 10, 2026

Why ants “get wings” in spring-summer: the moment of mating and the “nuptial flight”

In the height of summer, in hot-humid weather conditions, we happen to see clouds of ants with wings which move in large numbers and with an almost disordered flight, gliding here and there on every surface. Are these some kind of winged ants? No, it’s actually a phase of life cycle of most species, the moment of mating and the ...