Kinship Terminology

Kinship terms like mother and son are words used by a specific culture to describe various familial relationships. Such terminologies include words used to address members of one’s own family as well as words used to identify people’s relationships to one another. Kinship terms generally distinguish between the sexes and generations and indicate whether people are related by blood or marriage. What is the difference between “descriptive” and “classificatory” kinship terms? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Facial Hair

Over the centuries, as styles of clothing change and evolve, so too do the ways in which men wear their facial hair. In 18th-century Europe, the chinstrap, a narrow line of beard that grows along the chin and jaw, gained popularity, while the handlebar moustache, with its characteristically lengthy ends, is considered stereotypical of the 19th-century American Wild West. What are “friendly mutton chops”? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Calorie Restriction and Life Extension

Calorie restriction (CR), a diet known by many names, is the practice of limiting dietary energy intake with the intention of improving overall health and slowing the aging process. While caloric intake among practitioners is limited, care is taken to ensure that dieters receive adequate vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. CR has been shown to lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting glucose in human subjects. What are some of the criticisms of this diet? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Underwater Archaeology

Underwater archaeology, a branch of maritime archaeology, is the study of past human life, behaviors, and cultures using the physical remains found in bodies of water or buried beneath water-logged sediment. Researchers in this field generally examine the sites of shipwrecks, submerged airplanes, structures created by humans in water bodies, and places where people once lived that have since been flooded or covered by water. How do divers record their findings underwater? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Ziggurats

A ziggurat is a pyramidal structure built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform with a shrine at its summit. Access to the shrine is provided by a series of ramps located on one side of the temple or by a continuous spiral ramp. These temples—the earliest examples of which date to the end of the third millennium BCE—were commonly erected by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. What is the significance of the multicolored brick facings found on many ziggurats? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Sword of Gou Jian

In 1965, archeologists excavating ancient tombs in Hubei, China, discovered a bronze sword sheathed tightly in a wooden scabbard. The weapon had been in a wet, underground tomb for over 2,000 years, yet the blade remained untarnished and sharp. Scientists, amazed by the sword’s resilience, tested it to determine its chemical composition and found it to be an alloy of six metals. What does the “text of birds and worms” inscribed on the blade tell historians about the artifact? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Astrobiology

Astrobiology, also called exobiology, combines aspects of astronomy, biology, and geology in an interdisciplinary study of life in space. According to astrobiologists, the search for extraterrestrial life throughout the universe is governed by 6 basic parameters that determine whether an environment can support life: temperature, pressure, salinity, acidity, water availability, and oxygen content. Which 3 planetary bodies, located within our solar system, are best equipped to sustain life? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Weightless Wonders

“Vomit Comet” is a nickname for any airplane that briefly provides passengers with a nearly weightless environment by following a parabolic vertical flight path. The aircraft mimics the trajectory of an object in free-fall and therefore does not exert any g-force on its contents. As a result, passengers have zero apparent weight relative to the aircraft. According to the director of the Reduced Gravity Research Program, what percentage of passengers on zero-g flights becomes violently ill? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Tay al-Ard

Tay al-Ard, literally translated to mean “folding up of the earth,” is the name for thaumaturgical teleportation in the mystical form of Islamic religious and philosophical tradition. Some explain the concept as traversing the earth without moving, while others explain that it is the earth which is displaced under the traveler’s feet. Tay al-Ard is a common concept in Sunni, Shia, and Sufi belief, though each group interprets it slightly differently. What Quranic verses allude to such travel? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Daguerreotype

The daguerreotype, an early form of photograph, was invented by Louis Daguerre in the early 19th c. He collaborated with J. Nicéphore Niepce, who created the first permanent photograph, but completed the design alone following his partner’s sudden death. A daguerreotype, produced on a silver-plated copper sheet, produces a mirror image photograph of the exposed scene. Daguerre’s process made portrait photography possible for the first time. How did the French government describe the invention? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary