Signore Galilei

We all learned in science class that water freezes at 0 °C or 32 °F at atmospheric pressure. But what water, exactly? Even after you distill out all the dissolved salts and minerals to get pure H2O, not all H2O is created equal – and for the most precise temperature measurements, the differences really matter. Here’s…

Let’s consider a person you don’t know. Maybe they live in the Republic of the Congo. Let’s say they’re near a city – not the country’s biggest city, but maybe its 5th biggest city. I don’t know that city’s name, but I could probably look it up. And they’re not in the city center, but…

Last week, we looked at some other things besides the USA that are turning 250 in 2026.  As promised, here are a few more: The Dominguez-Escalante expedition Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante were two priests from New Spain, who set out on July 29th 1776 to find an overland route from Santa Fe…

This year, we celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the final text of which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776.  The year 1776 has become synonymous with the United States of America, but there were in fact other things that happened that year, some of which also…

Backstory time: there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to maps without New Zealand.  It’s an unfortunately large category.  Most maps are like this one from the 404 page of New Zealand’s government: Years ago, someone made a joke post that was just a map of the United States of America, which is therefore a map without…

For some of us, our Roman Empire actually is the Roman Empire. As far as pre-modern states go, the Roman Empire was incredibly powerful, culturally influential, and well documented. Rome’s expansion shaped Europe, and Europe’s shaped the world. So when did the Romans stop being a thing? Definitions are as always tough, but they kind…

Picture this: the world’s top scientists are all telling the US government that a brand new technology is an existential threat to humanity. The president listens, and even agrees. The American government, currently a few years ahead of its rivals, proposes a plan at the United Nations that would place this technology under international authority…

Sometimes, very serious episodes in history sound incredibly silly. Such is the case with the British war against Kandy. Though it may sound like an ill-conceived health campaign, this was not a war on “candy” as in sweets, but rather “Kandy” as in the kingdom in modern Sri Lanka, around the year 1800. Sri Lanka…

Alexander Graham Bell is widely credited with inventing the telephone, in 1876. It’s not entirely undisputed: Elisha Gray, Antonio Meucci, and Johann Philipp Reis each also have a decent claim as well, but Bell’s name is the one we most associate with the invention that lets us send a voice through a wire. So what…

Christopher Columbus didn’t navigate by the North Star. At least, not directly. Columbus is a controversial figure from a modern perspective, and he undeniably made many mistakes. But this wasn’t one of them. Mariners sailing for Spain and Portugal in the 1490s just didn’t use the North Star as true north. Because back then, it…