Ecology

The worst downsides of the year: the top 10 of the most serious IT outages in 2025

The worst downsides of the year: the top 10 of the most serious IT outages in 2025

Credit: Ookla/Downdetector. There photograph of the major IT downturns of 2025 returns a clear fact: our digital daily life is based on infrastructures that are most often efficient, but also on delicate balances. When these balances are broken, the effects become immediately visible on a global scale. Over the course of the year, we have seen disruptions that have not ...

Quarries and mines: what is the difference between the two types of mining site?

Quarries and mines: what is the difference between the two types of mining site?

Italy has a long tradition miningwith the first testimonies dating back to periods prior toEmpire Roman. According to the current regulatory framework, extractive activities on Italian territory are divided into two main categories: quarrying activities And mining activities. In common perception the difference between the two is often associated with the way they appear, the quarries are visible on the ...

Quarries and mines: what is the difference between the two types of mining site?

Quarries and mines: what is the difference between the two types of mining site?

Italy has a long tradition miningwith the first testimonies dating back to periods prior toEmpire Roman. According to the current regulatory framework, extractive activities on Italian territory are divided into two main categories: quarrying activities And mining activities. In common perception the difference between the two is often associated with the way they appear, the quarries are visible on the ...

Why do sumo wrestlers weigh so much?

Why do sumo wrestlers weigh so much?

Sumo match; credit: Cesar I. Martins from Jundiai, Brazil, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons Sumo (相撲) – Japanese term which literally means “to tug at each other” – is a form of hand-to-hand combat: the purpose of rikishithe fighters, is to knock down the opponent or make him leave the combat zone, said dohyo. Their high weight is achieved ...

The story of Sofonisba Anguissola: who was the forgotten Italian lady painter

The story of Sofonisba Anguissola: who was the forgotten Italian lady painter

Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-portrait with easel, 1556, Museum Castle in Łańcut; via Wikimedia Commons Sofonisba Anguissola, she was a Renaissance “lady painter”, one of the few artists of the time to have achieved international fame and recognition. His fame has come down to us thanks to the quotes of the great art historian Giorgio Vasari in his “Lives”, but also in ...

Who decided that the year begins on January 1st?

Who decided that the year begins on January 1st?

It is not at all obvious that the New Year’sthat is, the first day of the year, fall on January 1st: after all, it’s a totally arbitrary choice. And in fact it has not always been like this, and in many parts of the world it is not like this even today. Who decided this, and how? The story begins ...

Who were the Sangallos, the two architects who revolutionized military fortifications

Who were the Sangallos, the two architects who revolutionized military fortifications

When talking about military engineering, especially in reference to that of the past, it is impossible not to mention the fortification works designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and his nephew Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. With their works, the two architects contributed decisively to marking the transition from defensive military engineering of the medieval tradition to modern fortification, ...

Have you ever dreamed of this man? The truth behind the urban legend

Have you ever dreamed of this man? The truth behind the urban legend

“Ever dream this man?“, did you dream of this man? This phrase at the turn of the 2010s began to become a sort of catchphrase online, thanks also to the association with the strange identikit of a balding man with thick eyebrows. Looking at him, numerous users claimed to have actually dreamed of him at least once in their life… ...

Why sparkling wine "pops" when we uncork it (and why it's better not to)

Why sparkling wine “pops” when we uncork it (and why it’s better not to)

There is no celebration of New Year’s without a nice “bang” made by opening a bottle of sparkling wine. Behind that characteristic “pop”, however, lies all the complexity of fluid dynamics, the physics of fluids: did you know, for example, that the “bang” of uncorked sparkling wine is a miniature version of the sonic boom produced by planes breaking the ...

Why does the smell of fried food stick to my clothes? The scientific explanation

Why does the smell of fried food stick to my clothes? The scientific explanation

Have you ever wondered why, when let’s fry something, our clothes become so impregnated with this smell, with the it smells like fried food that can stay on sweatshirts or t-shirts for several hours? It all has to do with the chemical processes that occur during the cookingwhen i fats contained in the oil undergo an oxidation process in which ...