The BrainSnail Blog
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846 articles · page 3 of 36
How Does Judo Work? Throws, Balance and Winning With an Opponent's Weight
Judo is a grappling sport in which the aim is to throw, pin or submit an opponent using their own force and balance against them. Its origin, scoring and falls.
How Did Whales Evolve? From Wolf-Sized Walkers to the Largest Animals Ever
Whales are mammals whose ancestors walked on land fifty million years ago, and fossils of every stage on the way back to the sea have been found. The sequence.
What Was Triceratops? Horns, Frill and the Last Great Plant-Eater
Triceratops was a three-horned, frilled dinosaur the size of an elephant that lived at the very end of the Cretaceous. What the horns were for, and its enemy.
What Is Manslaughter? The Line Between Murder and an Unlawful Killing
Manslaughter is killing without the intent that makes a killing murder, or with an intent the law partly excuses. The two kinds, and why the line is argued.
What Is a Trade Deficit? Why Importing More Than You Export Is Not Always Bad
A trade deficit means a country buys more from abroad than it sells, and the gap is paid by borrowing or selling assets. What it measures, and when it bites.
How Are Tunnels Dug? Boring Machines, Blasting and the Channel Tunnel
A tunnel is dug by cutting rock or soil at the face and holding up the ground behind, by machine, explosive or shield. How each works, and the Channel Tunnel.
What Is Nirvana? The Goal of Buddhism Explained
Nirvana is the Buddhist term for the end of craving and of rebirth, a word meaning blowing out. What is extinguished, and why the Buddha would not describe it.
What Is Machu Picchu? An Inca Estate the Spanish Never Found
Machu Picchu is a fifteenth-century Inca royal estate on a ridge above the Urubamba, left within a century and unknown outside Peru until 1911. What it was for.
How Fast Can a Human Run? The Physics and Physiology of the 100 Metres
The fastest human has run 100 metres in 9.58 seconds and topped 44 kilometres an hour. What limits a sprinter, and why the ground matters more than the legs.
What Is Art Nouveau? Whiplash Lines, Iron Lilies and the Style of 1900
Art Nouveau was the first modern style, a movement of the 1890s and 1900s that took its lines from plants. Its rise, and why it ended.
How Does Sunscreen Work? Filters, Factors and What the Number Means
Sunscreen stops ultraviolet light reaching the skin by absorbing it in molecules or scattering it. What UVA and UVB do, and what SPF measures.
What Is a Cartel? Why Rivals Agree Not to Compete
A cartel is an agreement among competitors to fix prices, limit output or divide markets, to charge as a monopoly would. Why they form and why they break.
Why Do Rivers Flood? Rain, Catchments and the Floodplains We Built On
A river floods when more water arrives than its channel can carry, a normal event on a floodplain we chose to live on. What causes floods, and why they worsen.
How Is a Pencil Made? Graphite, Clay and a Lead That Was Never Lead
A pencil is a rod of graphite and clay baked hard and glued into a slot of cedar, a design settled in 1795. Where the graphite came from, and why it writes.
Where Do Unicorn Legends Come From? Rhinos, Narwhals and a Mistranslation
The unicorn began as a Greek traveller's account of an Indian animal and entered the Bible by translation error. How the legend grew, and what the horn was.
What Was the Colosseum For? Games, Crowds and the Politics of Rome
The Colosseum held 50,000 people for gladiator fights, animal hunts and executions, paid for by the emperor. How it was built, and why it mattered.
How Does a Parachute Work? Drag, Terminal Velocity and the Shape of a Canopy
A parachute slows a fall by dragging so much air that the body reaches the speed of a jog instead of a crash. The physics, and why canopies became wings.
What Was Angkor? The Largest City of the Medieval World
Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire for six centuries, a city of perhaps a million people fed by canals and reservoirs. Its temples, and why it was left.
How Do Skyscrapers Stand Up? Steel, Wind and the Lift That Made Them Possible
A skyscraper is a steel or concrete frame that carries its weight and fights the wind, wrapped in a skin that carries nothing. The frame, the wind and the lift.
Why Do People See Ghosts? Sleep Paralysis, Grief and the Brain That Finds Faces in the Dark
Around a third of people report having seen or felt a ghost, and no ghost has ever been recorded. The experiences, from sleep paralysis to grief, explained.
Why Were Carboniferous Insects So Big? Dragonflies With the Wingspan of a Gull
Three hundred million years ago dragonflies had 70-centimetre wingspans and millipedes were two metres long. Why oxygen let them grow, and why they shrank.
What Was Spinosaurus? The Dinosaur That Went Into the Water
Spinosaurus was longer than Tyrannosaurus, carried a sail and a crocodile's snout, and its only skeleton was bombed in 1944. What has been found since.
What Is Precedent? How One Judge's Decision Binds the Next
In common-law countries a court must follow the rulings of higher courts in earlier cases, so law is built case by case. What binds, what persuades, and why.
What Is the Quran? The Book Muslims Believe Was Spoken, Not Written
The Quran is the scripture of Islam, believed to be the word of God recited to Muhammad over 23 years. How it is arranged and preserved, and why Arabic matters.
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