Frost and the Wonders of Liquid Air Frost can perform miracles. He can build a bridge across a river without an axe or a single nail, and he can turn…

In spring the fields turned lush and green. “How is that possible? We didn’t plant anything this spring.” “You didn’t need to plant anything. The mowed field greened up again…

Why We Crave More Water in Summer It’s a strange thing: in the summer, when it’s hot and people are drinking plenty of water, they often find themselves wanting to…

Most people know two crops cultivated for their high sugar content: sugar beet and sugarcane, the latter thriving in warmer climates. But a surprising contender has joined them — a…

People have long marveled that an elephant, so massive and heavy, can walk calmly through swamps where other animals would struggle. It comes down to the unique structure of its…

Understanding Sea Level Variations We usually measure land height relative to sea level. For example, the eastern peak of Mount Elbrus rises to 5,595 meters above sea level. That makes…

The sunflower you see in gardens today barely resembles its wild ancestors. Known in some accounts as the helianthus from Peru, the plant was transformed by decades of cultivation by…

Measuring the sugar content of beet roots is surprisingly tedious and time-consuming. You have to pull out a root, cut off a piece, and dip it into a molasses solution…

The Voice of the Sea The sea has a voice. If you learn to listen, you can sense an approaching storm. When you step onto the shore, apart from the…

Not long ago, a peculiar package arrived at the manuscript department of the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library in Leningrad, sent from Central Asia. It was too small and too heavy to…

The woman gasped and dropped the knife, which was covered in shimmering scales. The fish thrashed its tail, hit the table, and flopped onto the floor. “Oh, for heaven’s sake!…

The potato tuber is a living organism. It breathes and is highly sensitive. Potatoes rest in a dark cellar, but as soon as the sun warms the fields and a…

Steel vs. Synthetic Fibers: A New Era of Strength Steel is one of the most common and durable metals. When people say “even steel couldn’t withstand something,” it’s hard to…

Long-distance TV reception might seem like a lucky fluke for hobbyists, but specialists can deliberately receive TV images transmitted from up to 1,200 miles (about 2,000 kilometers) away. You might…

In Gogol’s day, folk tales said a fern’s mythical midnight fire flower marked buried treasure. Ferns don’t actually bloom; they reproduce with spores, tiny particles you can only see under…

Remember the Russian fairy tale about the crafty peasant and the trusting bear, who ended up with nothing but leaves—worthless tops—and useless roots? The peasant always came out ahead! But…

Was the air on Earth millions of years ago the same as it is today? Only eyewitnesses can answer that question. And believe it or not, those eyewitnesses have been…

There are countless edible plants on Earth. Some bear fruit, others have roots, and some produce young, tender shoots. A few grow enormous edible parts; for example, a single coconut…

Diamonds are nearly 1,000 times harder than quartz and 150 times harder than corundum, their closest counterpart. When a small diamond crystal is sandwiched between two steel plates, it can…

More than two thousand years ago, Spartacus led the largest slave uprising in ancient Rome. In his honor, mass sporting competitions in the USSR were called Spartakiads starting in 1928.…

Engineering Marvels: The Future of Power Generation We’re building machines so massive today that even the legendary Gulliver would look tiny by comparison. It’s true. For example, a steam turbine…

A patient is about to undergo a complex surgery. He lies on a white operating table, covered with a sheet, and the medical team begins to prep the incision site…

These crested chickens were under special observation and received an enhanced diet—just like true donors! From time to time, the chickens had their blood drawn and transfused into other chickens.…

Have you ever wondered why our eyes are structured the way they are? Take bees, for example: they can see ultraviolet light. In contrast, human eyes and those of many…

Chemists calculated that it takes no more than 11 pounds of potatoes to make a pair of galoshes. They extract alcohol from the tubers, refine it, and convert it into…

Scientists are hard to surprise. So when the skin of a dead platypus was first sent from Australia to England, British zoologists thought people on that distant, mostly unexplored continent…

At an international competition, spectators held their breath as a long, narrow boat raced across the water, leaving its rivals far behind. The crowd erupted for the winners—Soviet athletes—who were…

How can you tell how old a caught fish is? By examining its scales. When a fish hatches from its egg it already has the beginnings of its scales, and…

Have you ever seen a clear beer bottle? You probably haven’t—brewers use dark glass to keep beer from getting ruined by light. And what about a dark milk bottle? Chances…

Camel thorn isn’t just a treat for the “ships of the desert.” People living on both sides of the Kum-Darya River enjoy it too. They don’t eat the plant’s stems…

Camels live in some of the hottest places on Earth, yet they barely sweat. The body temperature of these “ships of the desert” can rise to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40…

It’s hard to imagine organisms smaller than yeast cells. There are about 40 billion of them in just one gram! These tiny fungi are essential in cities, where they work…

Canned Goods rnrnSome discoveries are so strange they almost don’t seem real. Half a century ago, while digging a tunnel in the U.S. states Arizona and Nevada, workers encountered a…

Tilapia In 1938, scientists were stunned when a 1.5-meter-long coelacanth was caught off the coast of South Africa. Until then, scientists believed the species had gone extinct millions of years…

For centuries, the slender wheat stalk has fascinated people. Delicate but strong enough to hold the weight of an ear of wheat, the stalk keeps its bounty well above the…

In China, people use bamboo to make plumbing pipes and even woven cushions. On Sumatra, they craft it into snuff boxes, mats, and hats, while Malaysians use it as flooring…

In 1929 the world watched in alarm when the Italian explorer Nobile vanished after taking off in a dirigible toward the North Pole. Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen rushed to…

Tin pest Scott, the renowned polar explorer, prepared meticulously for his expedition to the South Pole. He planned for Antarctica’s icy silence, hurricane-force winds, and bone-deep cold. He considered the…

Not long ago, prospectors hunting for hidden minerals relied on a simple tool: a slingshot cut from a hazelnut bush and treated with a secret technique. Holding the slingshot with…

There’s nothing worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm inside. It may look rosy and fragrant on the outside, but inside it’s a mushy mess. There’s little…

Near Trostyanets in the Sumy region, visitors to the dendrological park can marvel at the “13 sisters”—a group of linden trees that all grow from a single root. These sisters…

Researchers estimate that a liter of seawater contains as much potential fusion energy as the chemical energy in 350 liters of gasoline. Once we harness this virtually inexhaustible source, it…

Nature presents humanity with countless mysteries, and we tirelessly work to unravel them one by one. The otter, which inhabits rivers, primarily feeds on fish. There are no recorded instances…

Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only one survives today—the Great Pyramid of Giza, the most magnificent structure of antiquity. When researchers studied this monument of Egyptian architecture,…

In Argentina, warm weather lets sheep graze outdoors year-round. Still, shepherds sometimes came back to find their entire flocks dead overnight. The animals had seemed perfectly healthy during the day;…

Every autumn, millions of little orange suns appear among the dark green leaves of small trees along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. These are ripening citrus fruits. But…

Two Czechoslovak chemists set out to answer a tricky question: how does the chemical composition of corn kernels vary from ear to ear? When they burned the samples and examined…