Our universe is unfathomably huge and getting bigger all of the time, according to the Big Bang model and the theory of universe expansion. That’s a pretty cool concept and term, right? As the theory goes, dark energy (more on this later) is causing the universe to continually stretch itself. Studying the universe introduces us to some fascinating concepts in general: black holes, rogue planets, …
As the saying goes, there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. This saying dates all the way back to 1716, and the word tax is even older than that. Tax, meaning “a sum of money demanded by a government,” comes from the Latin taxare, meaning “censure, charge, tax with a fault,” and dates to around the 1200s. For centuries, taxes have been …
When was the last time you discovered an Easter egg hidden in plain sight? If your answer involved any kind of backyard Easter egg hunt, it’s time to expand your playing field. In the 1980s, the term Easter egg took on a new meaning that keeps the hunt going on all year—inside of video games! What is the origin of Easter egg? But first, let’s …
What is the origin of pi? Pi is the Latin name of the sixteenth Greek letter, π. (Mathematic notation borrows from a multitude of alphabets and typefaces.) The first recorded use of π as a mathematical symbol comes from the Welsh mathematician William Jones in a 1706 work called Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos, in which he abbreviated the Greek περιϕέρεια, (meaning “circumference,” or “periphery”) to its first letter: π. What does pi mean in mathematics? The mathematical …
Even though the standard calendar year is 365 days, Earth actually takes 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds to go completely around the sun. (This is called a solar year.) In order to keep the calendar cycle synchronized with the seasons, one extra day is (usually) added every four years as February 29. Where did this practice come from? Who came up …
Help your students learn scientific vocabulary with these learning games! Science and English meet in these activities for elementary students that will help them understand the language of scientists and researchers. 💡 Learning animal vocabulary First, watch this video about words for baby animals. Activity 1: Complete this word search. Find the words they learned about in the video. Click the image to get the …
It’s always fun to learn new things and learning a cool new word can scratch that itch of curiosity you might have. Speaking of itch, you may be wondering what medical term is used to refer to itchiness or really itchy skin. Itching to solve this mystery? We have just the educational aloe vera you are looking for—and you’ll learn a few more dermatological terms …
Ever heard of typoglycemia? Even if you haven’t, chances are you’ll recognize one of the viral puzzles used to demonstrate the phenomenon. Starting around 2003, an email began to circulate claiming that scrambled English words are just as easy to read as the original words. However, as interesting as the original email was, it didn’t actually tell the whole truth. There’s more to scrambled words than …
COVID-19 has set off many unprecedented events that will most likely change the world forever. Fortunately, they haven’t all been bad: the virus led to the remarkable development of vaccines at a pace and scale the likes of which have never before been seen in history. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine use a relatively new technology that has been approved for the …
You’ve likely heard of them before. Their most distinctive feature is a severe and progressive decline in memory, reasoning, and other primary cognitive abilities. Their diagnoses get easily mistaken for one another, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. Are dementia and Alzheimer’s the same thing? The short answer is no, they are not. Although tightly intertwined, they are remarkably different. How so? Well, this may come as …
Bright and breezy? You’ve got serotonin to thank. Gloomy and grumpy? A big ol’ hug and a burst of oxytocin will perk you up. As it turns out, there’s a chemical side to happiness and positive mental health. Lifestyle factors and genetics certainly play a role in this—the latter accounting for 50 percent of your high spirits, research says. Still, how happy you are is …
How well do you know your wikis? Maybe you’ve heard about a site that releases classified material from whistle-blowers. Or maybe you’re looking for an up-to-date source of historical dates and biographical information. Do you turn to WikiLeaks? Do you search through Wikipedia? The confusion is all the more understandable given that these two sites even look alike. Well, wonder no more. We’re about to leak you …