Category: Article of the Day

Mayakovsky, a Russian poet and playwright, was one of the foremost representatives of early 20th century Russian Futurism. A leader of the Futurist school in 1912, he went on to become the poetic voice of the Russian Revolution. His poetry is unique in its rhythm, rhyme, and imagery. Written almost entirely in metaphors, his 1915 poem The Cloud in Trousers describes the agony of unrequited love. Mayakovsky was one of the few Soviet writers allowed by the state to do what? Discuss

A head transplant is a surgical operation involving the replacement of one organism’s head with another’s. The first successful head transplant took place in the 1970s, when the head of a monkey was transplanted onto another’s body. The animal retained most of its senses but was paralyzed below the attachment site. Though still hypothetical for humans, proponents believe the procedure can help people facing widespread organ failure. What has prevented human head transplants from taking place? Discuss

Among the best primary sources on Aztec culture, Aztec codices contain firsthand accounts of the civilization’s history and religion. While the pre-Colombian codices are largely pictorial, later colonial era codices contain Aztec pictograms, as well as Aztec, Spanish, and occasionally Latin writings. Though there are few surviving pre-conquest codices, the tradition endured the transition to colonial culture, and about 500 such works survive today. What massacre is described in the Aubin Codex? Discuss

Revered as the primary means by which the Qur’an has been preserved, Islamic calligraphy is the art of decorative writing that often employs Arabic script, which consists of a 28-letter alphabet and 18 different forms of writing. These calligraphic scripts are often woven into intricate pictographic calligrams depicting animals, mosques, and various other figures. Which Christian saint’s relics are wrapped in a shroud decorated with Islamic calligraphy? Discuss

A number of years before he was placed on the US Secret Service’s Most Wanted List, bold con man Matthew Cox wrote a novel detailing the exploits of a man who travels across America committing many of the crimes for which Cox himself is currently incarcerated. Cox used approximately 30 aliases in his real life criminal pursuits, including the name of cartoon millionaire C. Montgomery Burns, and acquired between $5 million and $25 million in fraudulent property mortgaging deals. How did he do it? Discuss

The composition of vacuum energy, an underlying background energy that exists in space even when that space is devoid of matter, remains one of physics’ great unsolved mysteries. The phenomenon results in the existence of most, if not all, of the fundamental forces, such as gravity and electromagnetism, and many experts suspect that it affects the behavior of the universe on a cosmological scale. What 1948 experiment provided the first experimental verification of the existence of vacuum energy? Discuss

The elixir of life is a mythical potion said to confer immortality. The ancient Chinese thought that precious substances like gold and mercury brought longevity, and these ingredients were often used in their elixirs. Ironically, some metals are highly toxic and thus poisoned the longevity seekers who ingested them. Buddhism gave the Chinese alternate routes to immortality, but the elixir of life received renewed attention in the 18th century with what claims about the Comte de St. Germain? Discuss

Fluxus, “to flow” in Latin, is an international group of artists noted for blending various artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. Considered an attitude rather than a movement or style, Fluxus encourages a do-it-yourself aesthetic and values simplicity. Fluxus developed out of many of the concepts explored by composer John Cage, who focused on the notion of chance in art through works such as 4’33”—a “composition” performed without a single note being played. What are Fluxus boxes? Discuss

An evolutionary arms race is a struggle between interdependent organisms that evolve competing genetic adaptations with the back-and-forth escalation characteristic of an arms race. This competitive adaptation may occur between members of the same species or between different species, such as a predator and its prey, and it can be either symmetrical or asymmetrical, meaning competitors strive either for the same trait or to counter a trait in the other. What are some examples of this phenomenon? Discuss

Commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs, the carnivorous beetles of the family Lampyridae are named for their use of bioluminescence when attracting mates or prey. Fireflies are capable of producing red, yellow, or green “cold light” containing no ultraviolet or infrared rays. Approximately 90% of the energy used in the process is converted to visible light—compared to 10% for incandescent electric bulbs, which emit the remainder of their energy as heat. How do fireflies produce their light? Discuss