January 8, 2023
Once upon a time, a Brahmin (sage) invented the game of chess to teach the cruel Raja (the ruler) to treat his subjects well. In that game, the “Raja” (the name of one of the chess pieces) is the head of the state. If the “Raja” is captured, then his state ceases to exist. In case of danger, the “Raja” cannot survive without his faithful defenders and assistants – other figures.
The Raja was amazed by the game, understood its meaning, and promised not to oppress his subjects in the future. He then asked the Brahmin to choose the greatest reward he may wish for. The Brahmin replied that he wants to be rewarded with… wheat, but based on the following calculation: put one grain on the first cell of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, etc., doubling the number of grains on each subsequent cell.
The Raja, seeing that there are only 64 cells on the board, was surprised at the insignificance of the request. He decided that it’ll take about one or two sacks of wheat to fulfill it and gave the order to issue the reward immediately. Soon, the court mathematicians reported that the Raja would have to give so many grains, for which it would be necessary to sow the entire Earth, and the grown wheat would be enough to feed the whole population of Earth for 100 years.
Of course, the Raja could not fulfill his hasty promise and received another wise lesson from the inventor of the game of chess.
— A folk tale. Retold in the book “A complete course of chess: 64 lessons for beginners and not very experienced player”s, by S.B. Gubnitsky, M.G. Khanukov, S.A. Shedey.
The photo (own work) illustrates the second part of the fable, about exponential growth. In some variations, rice is requested instead of wheat, but in the photo, Wild Rice is used. The chess pieces’ positions are not random but positioned as in one of the first known chess riddles. In fact, it’s not even a chess riddle, but a Mansuba, a Shatranj problem, composed by Abu Na’im al Khadim (9th century). Shatranj is an old form of chess, with very similar rules. The differences in the rules don’t affect the riddle. White to move, and mate in three.
An easier view of the riddle is available in the first comment. Can you solve one of the oldest chess riddles?
Image source: Own work.
February 6, 2022
The small community of Piraha Indians lives in small settlements (ten to twenty people each) in the Maici River basin in Brasilian Amazon. Their main occupations are fishing, hunting, gathering, and the natural barter. Their language is the last surviving of the isolated family of Amazonian Mura languages, and till very recently their knowledge of Portuguese was limited to a few phrases.
One of the main uniqueness of the Piraha language is the full absence of numerals. There are only two words in the dictionary that can be disputed for their numerical meaning: “a very small number or size” (“hói” with a falling tone) and “a slightly larger number or size” (the rising “hoí”). In addition, there is a quantitative word for “a lot” (bá à gí só, literally “to bring together”).
Daniel Everett and his wife Keren, the most authoritative researchers of the Piraha language, were the first who noticed the unique quantitative perception of Piraha Indians. Everetts in 1980 tried to teach the Indians an elementary account (European type). After eight months of these classes, no one of the students had mastered the arithmetic rules. In addition, Everetts concluded that the Pirahas understand the quantitative difference, even if the difference is only in one object, but the lack of abstract terms for the numbers makes it difficult for the Piraha Indians to transfer information to the surrounding.
In 2011, a new expedition to the Piraha village found a first-aid post, a stationary toilet with running water, light from a gasoline generator, a TV, and a school where a Piraha teacher teaches Portuguese and arithmetic in Portuguese. It is alleged that the Indians themselves perceived the new household opportunities positively.
Image source: https://www.documentarytube.com, “HOW THE PIRAHÃ PEOPLE BECAME THE HAPPIEST TRIBE IN THE WORLD?“. https://www.documentarytube.com/articles/how-the-piraha-people-became-the-happiest-tribe-in-the-world
January 7, 2022
During the days of the winter solstice, an unusual and very rare optical phenomenon occurs, known as the effect of “the burning bush”, which can be observed on Mount Karkom (Khar-Karkom) in the southwestern part of the Negev Desert in Israel. Due to the specific angle of the sun’s rays on these days, the inner wall of one of the small caves on the side of the mountain reflects light, creating a unique optical effect around the cave. The entrance into the cave becomes phosphorescent with a bright orange light.</p>
The phenomenon was accidentally discovered by Israeli ecologist and tour guide Yigal Granot in 2003. The archaeological research has revealed that Mount Karkom has been used as a place of worship and pilgrimage for tens of thousands of years. On the slopes of the mountain were found around 44,000 (!) rock paintings and inscriptions, a few thousand years old, in the extinct Semitic language. In addition, small flint deposits on the mountain slopes, which were in wide use by the ancient inhabitants, were revealed.
Image’s source article: https://www.ynet.co.il/vaca…/israeltrips/article/byu3mg85f
Photo by: Ziv Reinstein
July 11, 2021
Whales taking a nap: To take a nap, sperm whales take a deep breath, sink 15 meters deep in a vertical position and sleep all at the same time in this position till the next breath (up to two hours). Probably, because of safety reasons, the animals gather and sleep together between 5 and 6 whales. The photos of the sleeping whales were first shot by Stephane Granzotto in 2008.
Link to source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/…/sperm-whales-nap…
Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society | Copyright © 2015-2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved
March 28, 2021
This, then, is what Darius said… He (the king) made Otanes governor of the people on the coast. Otanes’ father Sisamnes had been one of the royal judges, and Cambyses had cut his throat and flayed off all his skin because he had been bribed to give an unjust judgment. Then he cut leather strips of the skin which had been torn away and with these he covered the seat upon which Sisamenes had sat to give judgment. After doing this, Cambyses appointed the son of this slain and flayed Sisamnes to be judge in his place, admonishing him to keep in mind the nature of the throne on which he was sitting… (Herodotus, The Histories, Book 5, Ch. 25(with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920)
- Cambyses II, the son and successor of Cyrus the Great (r. 550 – 530 BC), was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 530 to 522 BC.
Gerard David (c. 1460 –1523) The Judgement of Cambyses (1498). From the collection of Groeninge Museum, Bruges, Belgium.
March 14, 2021
Source: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1665.0001
February 25, 2021
In 1880, the famous French modernist painter, Edouard Manet (1832-1883) painted “A Bunch of Asparagus”, which was purchased by French art collector, Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905). Manet asked for 800 francs for his work, but the buyer, delighted with the painting, sent a check for 1000 francs. In response, Manet sent “A Sprig of Asparagus”, a specially prepared miniature painting, with just one stalk of asparagus and accompanied the parcel with a note: “There was one missing from your bunch”.
Today “A Bunch of Asparagus” painting is kept in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, and one “Asparagus” is in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
November 14, 2020
The cathode-ray tube (CRT) is an image display technology, that was very popular during the 20th century, but since the late 2000s, newer “flat panel” display technologies are mostly used, like LCD, a plasma display, and OLED displays.
In the image, you can see three zoom levels of the same CRT TV. CRTs are built from a vacuum tube that contains one or more electron guns. The screen is coated with phosphor, an inorganic material that glows when struck by the electron beam and in color devices, an image is produced by controlling the intensity of each of the three electron beams, one for each additive primary color (red, green, and blue).
The photo was taken with an old TV and a smartphone. Similar photos with newer televisions are much harder to take, because the resolution is much higher, and everything is much smaller – nowadays smartphones just don’t have enough zoom to see most of the details. If you have some old, or new, piece of technology, and can take a photo of its details, share in the comments!
Image source: Own work.
November 6, 2020
What do you think, are there still any undiscovered organs in the human body?
A) Yes, science knows so little about so much…
B) No, we know everything about our own body!
C) Everything is possible because we are constantly mutating.
D) I do not care much if I have one stomach more or less. The most important thing is to feel healthy!
Thanks to everyone who participated in our mini-survey. We admit that the question was a bit tricky. This is true that the generations of physicians, anatomists, physiologists, biochemists, and molecular biologists for hundreds of years have studied the human body quite well. But even today, from time to time, our body brings us some fascinating surprises. Scientists from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, led by Wouter V. Vogel, recently found a new organ: a set of salivary glands located on torus tubarius, a mucosal elevation in the lateral aspect of the nasopharynx. This area of the nasopharynx was thought to contain no vitally important organs except for microscopic, diffuse salivary glands.
However, the detected set is not so small – about 4 centimeters on average. Because of their specific location in the torus tubarius, the researchers called them the tubular salivary glands. These glands are likely to lubricate and moisturize the upper throat behind the nose and mouth. The scientists published their findings in the online September 23 issue of Radiotherapy and Oncolоgy journal (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32976871/).
This discovery may be crucial for the methodologies of cancer treatment. Doctors who irradiate head and neck to treat tumors try to avoid irradiating the salivary glands. Such intervention damaging these glands may directly affect the patient’s condition and future recovery. The patients may, in potential, have numerous problems with food intake, swallowing, and speech abilities. Because previously no one knew about the tubular salivary glands, this area was also exposed to radiation. To confirm this, the researchers looked through the records of more than 700 cancer patients and found that as the patients were more radiated in the area of the tubular salivary glands, they experienced more side effects. Thus, the new discovery has not only a basic scientific significance but also has a very useful clinical application.
Image: © The Netherlands Cancer Institute. Adapted from https://www.livescience.com/new-salivary-gland.html
September 22, 2020
Today, September 22, 2020, is the day of the September equinox (or Southward equinox). On this day both the Earth’s northern part and southern part are equally illuminated, making the daytime and nighttime of equal duration all over the planet.
Since the ancient history, this day was of great importance for the mankind: In the Iranian calendar, that starts with the March equinox (or Northward equinox), the September equinox is celebrated with Mehregan (or Jašn-e Mehr) a Zoroastrian and Persian festival celebrated to honor the yazata Mithra which is responsible for friendship, affection, and love. In Slavic countries in pre-Christian times the feast of Dożynki, the harvest festival, usually fell on the autumn equinox. In Korea, it is the Chuseok, literally “Autumn eve”, once known as “hangawi” which in archaic Korean means “the great middle (of autumn)”, and it’s a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday which is held around the autumn equinox (30 September – 2 October in 2020).
In the picture, you can see a photo taken by Dr. Michael Freikman at Rujum el Hiri, “Wheel of Spirits”, in Israel. The site is dated around two to five thousand BC, and during the equinox, an observer standing in the center of the monument could observe the rising sun through a “slot” between two huge stones, which was carefully constructed to highlight this celestial event. Happy equinox!
September 12, 2020
Do you have any idea what’s in the picture?
If not, don’t worry – normally it looks very different. This is a computer mouse – on the right you can see the scroll wheel and next to it there is a white circle that is attached to it. Below, there is the middle button, so pressing the wheel moves the circle that pushes the button. On the bottom right corner, there is another button, and on the top right, you can barely see the third one.
Next to the upper right, not visible, there is a cog-wheel. Moving the scroll wheel moves also the cog-wheel that touches a metal plate (a part of an electric circuit that handles the scrolling). In the bottom there are multiple wires – this is the USB cable. In the middle there is a chip that does most of the magic, analyzing the reflected light, which then transformed into the movement of the cursor on the screen.
At first, it seems like a small and simple piece of electronics, but underneath are hidden tons of sophisticated technologies, that perform wonders which we normally don’t even think about.
Image Source: Own work.
May 2, 2020
Crab nebula (M 1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a gaseous nebula in the constellation Taurus, at 6500 light-years from Earth, which is the remnant of supernova SN 1054. This is the first astronomical object identified with the historical supernova explosion recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers in the year 1054. The flash was so bright that it was visible for 23 days with the naked eye, even in the daytime.
In the center of the nebula is a pulsar PSR B0531 + 21, which is a neutron star remaining after a supernova explosion, its diameter is about 25 km, and its mass is about 2 solar masses. The pulsar was discovered in 1968; this was the first observation linking the remains of a supernova and pulsars and served as the basis for the assumption that pulsars are neutron stars.
In the x-ray and gamma-ray range of radiation above 30 keV, this pulsar is the strongest constant source of such radiation in our galaxy, and its magnetic field is 10^13 stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field.
Image: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University).
April 12, 2020
Babies and gold: Babies under three months have more gold in their hair than older people. This comes from their mother’s breast milk and can reach double the average concentration of gold in Earth’s crust.
Source: https://www.sciencefocus.com/…/what-connects-gold-and…/
February 26, 2020
Frogs swallow with their eyes.
You may have noticed that frogs close their eyes when swallowing. But here’s a twist: they are doing more than just blinking or enjoying the meal.
Each time a frog swallows, its eyes are closed. The eyes depress down into the sockets to help move the food down its throat. It can swallow food without the assistance of its eyeballs, but being able to push the food significantly reduces the amount of swallowing it will need to eat its meal. It can close both eyes, or one at a time as needed to help force down food.
Read more: https://animals.mom.me/frogs-close-eyes-eating-2844.html
January 30, 2020
What do you see in the picture? Grains of gold under an optical microscope?
No! It’s a close-up photo of the Sun, taken by a new cutting-edge National Solar Observatory solar telescope, that started to operate this year on Hawaiian island Maui. With a 4-meter mirror, it’s able to observe an object as small as 60 km on the Sun’s surface. NSF’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is about to start a new era of solar science and deepen our understanding of the sun and its impacts on our planet. The Inouye Solar Telescope provides unprecedented close-ups of the sun’s surface, but ultimately it will measure the sun’s corona – no total solar eclipse required. Previously, researchers had to wait for a total solar eclipse to “block” the sun to study its outer atmosphere, the corona, where solar storms begin.
For the time being, solar astronomers have this new tool to see our nearest star if not with perfect vision – the clearest, most detailed yet.
Video source: https://www.nso.edu/inouye-solar-telescope-first-light/
November 29, 2019
You may think that it’s chocolate (yummy!), but it’s not. It’s a Gemstone That looks like deconstructed chocolate bars: Chocolate Calcite
Resembling an artful edible decoration from some top Swiss chocolate, Incredibly deep brown crystals that are thoroughly infused with microscopic hematite grains, giving them a deep ruddy red color. The specimen size is 9 x 9 x 4.3 cm, large specimens of this kind are very rare.
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate. The Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratch hardness comparison, defines value 3 as “calcite”.
Calcite is a common constituent of sedimentary rocks, limestone in particular, much of which is formed from the shells of dead marine organisms. Approximately 10% of sedimentary rock is limestone.
Other polymorphs of calcium carbonate are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Aragonite will change to calcite over timescales of days or less at temperatures exceeding 300°C, and vaterite is even less stable
Source: http://www.geologyin.com/…/a-gemstone-that-looks-like…
November 11, 2019
NASA: Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their best look yet at an interstellar visitor — comet 2I/Borisov — whose speed and trajectory indicate it has come from beyond our solar system. This Hubble image, taken on Oct. 12, 2019, is the sharpest view of the comet to date. Comet 2I/Borisov is only the second such interstellar object known to have passed through the solar system. In 2017, the first identified interstellar visitor, an object officially named ‘Oumuamua, swung within 24 million miles of the Sun before racing out of the solar system. “Whereas ‘Oumuamua appeared to be a rock, Borisov is really active, more like a normal comet. It’s a puzzle why these two are so different,” said David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), leader of the Hubble team who observed the comet.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/…/hubble-observes-1st-confirmed…/