Author: signoregalilei
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These 6 countries secretly have the same name
Country names aren’t always unique in the world. Look on a world map and you’ll see 2 Koreas, 2 Congos, and a full 4 Guineas. But there are some examples that are more hidden. Specifically, there are many combinations of countries whose names might look different in English, but ultimately come from the same meaning.…
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What’s Earth’s dominant species by mass?
You might have heard that all the ants in the world weigh as much combined as all the humans. That isn’t true. We outweigh ants 5 to 1.1 Termites might have us beat, though.2 Either way, it’s not really a fair comparison. There are thousands of species of ants and termites, and just one species…
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Antarctica is keeping the ocean alive…for now
Water in the ocean is constantly in motion. Scientists can identify distinct “water masses” in the ocean from different sources, and keep track of them by measuring dissolved salts, human pollutants, and the different isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in the water molecules themselves. This is how oceanographers have mapped the world’s currents, like the…
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The mystery animal on an ancient god’s head
Several Egyptian gods are depicted with animal heads. Horus has a falcon head, Anubis has a jackal head, Thoth has an ibis head (except when he’s a baboon), and Set has…uhh, what is that, exactly? Left to right: Horus, Anubis, Thoth, and Set Turns out no one knows for sure. The Greeks called it the…
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The Earth is missing 3 trillion tons of mass
If you were to add up the mass of all the atoms in the Earth, you’d get a number 3 trillion tons more than the Earth’s actual mass. We didn’t have to count all the atoms down to the Earth’s core to figure this out. It’s a consequence of the laws of physics. Let’s start…
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The two Christian saints who are secretly the Buddha
Let me tell you the story of saints Barlaam and Josaphat of India. A king named Abenner, who persecutes Christians, hears from his court astrologers that his son will attain great power and rule over India. But one astrologer predicts that the prince will instead become a great holy man – a Christian. Alarmed, Abenner…
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How to find an eclipse around another planet
Last week, we talked about how moons in the outer solar system can see total eclipses as good as the ones we see on Earth. To recap, if you’re standing on one big round moon of a planet like Jupiter or Saturn, you can watch another big round moon just barely block out the Sun,…
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The next total solar eclipse is 500 million miles away
This past week, there was a total solar eclipse, visible from a path stretching along far northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, and Spain. Like many of this year’s eclipse chasers, I was clouded out – though I did have a lovely couple minutes of darkness on an Icelandic fjord. I’m already planning for the next time…
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“There Will Come Soft Rains”: Bradbury’s miniature apocalypse
Today is August 4th, 2026. Today is the original setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” from The Martian Chronicles.1 Bradbury himself once described this story as best representing the essence of his work,2 and I know of no story more appropriate for today. It’s also only about 2,000 words, if…
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How to put 170 atoms in an atom
You might already know that atoms are mostly empty space. Physical size behaves a bit weirdly at the atomic scale, but essentially the radius of an atom’s nucleus is tens of thousands of times smaller than the radius of an electron’s orbital. That’s the same ratio as a single grain of sand1 to a football…