Pop Culture

Pop Culture

The world's most polluted capital city
The onset of spring brings relief in more ways than one to Delhi. The air is cool and crisp, and with the milder weather come light showers that make the vegetation more lush. Around April, south-westerly winds sweep through the region, and the blanket of acrid smog that covers the city in the autumn and winter months begins to disperse. But it never really goes away.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in FYI
The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
In the warm air of an early-June morning, Jose Antonio Peña walks along a channel of gushing water in the Sierra Nevada of southern Spain. Traversing the rocky terrain and ducking beneath boughs of pine, he eventually reaches a grassy meadow on his left. The ancient artificial channel, known as an acequia, empties into the meadow, where its water branches into meandering streams that soak into the mountainside.
By Udley3 years ago in FYI
Can gravity batteries solve our energy storage problems?
As it trudges through the dense rainforests of West and Central Africa, the forest elephant creates a maze of green corridors by grazing and trampling on small trees in its path. Standing at 3m (almost 10ft), this gentle giant is smaller than its better-known counterpart, the savannah elephant, and remains an elusive, solitary creature. The forest elephant causes mayhem amid the rainforest's lush vegetation as it strips bark from saplings, digs for roots in the soil and munches on leaves and berries. But this destruction does more good than harm to the forest: it helps forests to store more carbon in their trees and preserves one of the planet's most vital ecosystems.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in FYI
The unseen man-made 'tracks' on the deep ocean floor
At the base of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from land, there are some curious marks on the seafloor that no animal could have made. Some of them look like narrow troughs carved into the pale silt. Others could be claw marks, gouged through the ecosystems of the deep by an undersea monster.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in FYI
The quest that discovered thousands of new species
It was once a private house, but now the imposing stone structure on Boswall Road, on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh, is part of a palliative care hospice.
By Holy horse3 years ago in FYI
If Planet Nine exists, why has no one seen it?
As we head towards the end of another extraordinary year, BBC Future is taking a look back at some of our favourite stories for our "Best of 2021" collection. Discover more of our picks here.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in FYI
The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make
In late 18th-Century Europe, a new fashion led to an international scandal. In fact, an entire social class was accused of appearing in public naked.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in FYI
The forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name
n 2011, archaeologists found something unusual in a Roman toilet. The team were excavating the ancient village of Tasgetium (now Eschenz, Switzerland), ruled by a Celtic king who was personally given the land by Julius Caesar. It was built on the banks of the river Rhine, along what was then an important trade route – and as a result, its remains have been steeped in water ever since. What should have rotted away centuries ago was uncovered in a remarkable state of preservation, protected by the lack of oxygen in the boggy conditions.
By Holy horse3 years ago in FYI
The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'
It was around 23:00 on 13 April 1699, in a small village in the north of England. Nine-year-old Jane Rowth blinked her eyes open and squinted out into the moody evening shadows. She and her mother had just awoken from a short sleep.
By Udley3 years ago in FYI
The dreaded compulsive skin peeling disorder
We must all have such a situation: hands, lips with skin must be torn off, there must be a pimple to pick, scabbed wounds always can not help but also to pick and pull, often unknowingly chew nails, there should be many people's fingertips are bare, does not look very good ...... Perhaps we all have more or less such behavior, but In fact, some people are in deep pain because of such behavior.
By Fester Hammer3 years ago in FYI
Trunk or Treat for Halloween started in churches
Halloween has evolved in many ways In decades past children dressed up for Halloween and knocked on doors in their neighborhoods. When someone answered they shouted "Trick or treat." Today you rarely see children going door to door thanks to COVID and also out of concern for safety. In our modern culture Trunk or Treat is popular and just like Christmas and Easter, it began in church.
By Cheryl E Preston3 years ago in FYI
2023 Guinness World Records That'll Surprise You
When an individual thinks of Guinness, the second thing that comes to mind is the most obscure record or a skill done repetitively for an extended time. And while those topics have become popular in recent years, to the point that every Average Joe is setting out to break records for the most mundane of hobbies, the modern age is giving birth to new unique Guinness World Records worthy of note.
By Allie Z.3 years ago in FYI