The adjective “normal” is one of the most used words in everyday languagebut also one of the most ambiguous. We use it to describe behaviors, bodies, emotions, cultures and even ways of loving or living. Yet what is considered normal it changes over time, space and depending on society. Normality is not an absolute truth: it is often the result ...
The history of relations between China and the USA has been a complex path, which went from an initial philosophical admiration to the alliance in the Second World War, up to today’s geopolitical clash, in which these two antithetical systems competing for economic and technological hegemony. From the first contacts to the “Open Door” policy A satirical drawing of the ...
Today, shake hands it is an official gesture that we make in formal contexts, with which we introduce ourselves for the first time or with which we stipulate agreements in diplomatic contexts. What seems to us to be a habitual action actually has very ancient origins: the handshake, even if in different contexts, has always brought with it a subtext ...
When traveling by plane, it happens that your ears feel “muffled” as if you had two rubber plugs, and then when you yawn, swallow, chew gum… you hear a “pop” that restores your hearing. Who knows the exact same annoyance well driving in the mountainswho takes an elevator in a skyscraper or who dives into water. The culprit is the ...
Water bills are paid at cubic meterbut how much does it correspond to? We know that one cubic meter is equal to 1000 litres and it weighs a tonbut is it a lot or a little? How much water is this actually? We try to visualize it through milk cartons and quantify it by comparing it with the water needed ...
Distribution of permanent (red triangles) and temporary (green triangles) seismic stations of the AdriaArray project. Credit: INGV In Europe, from 2022, it is in place the most important passive seismology experiment never made. It’s that of INGV AdriaArray project (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology), which made it possible to study the internal structure of the Earth in the central-Mediterranean ...
In Spain there is a habit that leaves you a little strange: that of eating “late” compared to other European countries. This habit is one of the most famous ones coming from the Iberian Peninsula, due to the history, politics and time zone of the region. Even today, in fact, Spaniards generally have lunch between 2.00pm and 3.30pm and dinner ...
Imagine yourself in Russia, in the freezing port city of Arkhangelsk. On the horizon you notice a wooden tower so high that it seems like the lair of a fairy tale villain: however, that is not a film set, it is the tallest independent wooden house in the world, the Sutyagin House. Demolished in 2008, that structure approximately 44 meters ...
Image generated with AI for illustrative purposes only. Modern cars are sometimes compared to real computers on wheels, equipped with countless technologies which, while improving our daily driving comfort, inexorably open the way to some potential vulnerabilities. The Bluetooth in the carwhich we normally use to listen to music or make hands-free calls, for example, can be transformed into a ...
Heady explosions of white and green surround gardens and adorn terraces throughout Italy, spreading their sweet, fresh scent to anyone who passes by. Let’s talk about jasmine. Or maybe not? There is a big chance that what you have in your house or garden is actually the false jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), a plant that resembles the jasmine (Jasminum officinale), but ...