our incredible world like you've never seen it before

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2011
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Author: Andrei Mihai

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Designer: Tibi Puiu

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ZME Science

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INTRO .................................................................................................................1

Girl Suffering From Syndrome X Doesnt Age, Remains An Infant .............................2

Meet The Worlds Only Immortal Animal .................................................................3

Big Pharma Spends More On Advertising Than Research ........................................59 Reasons Why There Wasnt Stress In The Good Old Days .....................................6

BAYERS HEROIN ............................................................................................................................................6

BOEHRINGER & SOEHNE .................................................................................................................................6

OPIUM - NOT JUST FOR NEWBORNS ...............................................................................................................7

COCA WINE ....................................................................................................................................................7

AMPHETAMINE INHALERS ...............................................................................................................................7

OPIUM FOR ASTHMA ......................................................................................................................................8

DRAGEES ANTISEPTIQUES AU MENTHOL .........................................................................................................8

MRS. WINSLOWS SOOTHING SYRUP ..............................................................................................................8

COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPS ......................................................................................................................10

8 Totally Awesome Natural Phenomena You Probably Didnt Know About ...............11

MAELSTROM ...............................................................................................................................................11

FIRE RAINBOW .............................................................................................................................................12

WATER SPOUTS ...........................................................................................................................................14

THE HONDURAN RAIN OF FISH ......................................................................................................................16

MOONBOWS ................................................................................................................................................18

PENITENTES .................................................................................................................................................20

SUPERCELLS ................................................................................................................................................21

ICE CIRCLES .................................................................................................................................................23

Amazing Unexplained Artifacts ............................................................................25

THE LONDON HAMMER A TOOL OLDER THAN HISTORY ...............................................................................25

THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM A GREEK ANCIENT COMPUTER ..................................................................26

THE DROPA STONES ....................................................................................................................................27

THE SAQQARA BIRD AN EGYPTIAN PLANE ..................................................................................................27

THE BAGHDAD BATTERY A 2000 YEAR OLD BATTERY .................................................................................28

UNEXPLAINABLE FOSSILS AND METAL OBJECTS ...........................................................................................28

THE PIRI REIS MAP .......................................................................................................................................29

THE NAZCA DRAWINGS ................................................................................................................................30

THE MYSTERIOUS CITY OF NAN MADOL A CITY BUILT ON CORALS ..............................................................32

THE SACSAYHUAMAN WALLS .......................................................................................................................33

The Sky Burial ...................................................................................................34

7 Animals That Lived Along With Your Grandparents But Not With You ....................37

Japanese Sea Lion .......................................................................................................................................37

Desert Rat Kangaroo .....................................................................................................................................37

Phantom shiner ............................................................................................................................................38

Labrador duck ..............................................................................................................................................38

Quagga ........................................................................................................................................................38Tasmanian Wolf ............................................................................................................................................39

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Caspian Tiger ...............................................................................................................................................39

The Worlds Most Polluted Cities .........................................................................40

Linfen, China ................................................................................................................................................40

La Oroya, Peru .............................................................................................................................................41

Norilsk, Russia ..............................................................................................................................................42

Dzerzhinsk, Russia ........................................................................................................................................43Chernobyl, Ukraine .......................................................................................................................................44

Thank you! ........................................................................................................45



5/491INTRO

INTRO

The world is just such an awesome place; what happens on our little planet is fascinating,remarkable, and unique in so many ways that it surpasses, without a doubt, even the

most imaginative movie or novel. What you are about to see and read will not take youto another world, but show you just how incredible our own one is, and how things thatyou never would have thought possible take place even in your backyard. Whats soincredible about it? So many things that it would take a lifetime to name just half, so Imgonna stick to just a handful here: amazing landscapes and animals, bizarre phenomenaand things youre gonna have a hard time believing about society thats what youregoing to nd here.

ZME Science is not a science journal, and it is not our intention to publish scientic

studies. This is in no way a comprehensive list and shouldnt be treated as one, buthopefully, this selection of articles and images will open your eyes, make you go Wow!,or maybe both. It will also help you discover new things, the kind of things that dontget broadcasted on TV, and major newspapers or websites almost never write about;the kind of things that get the talk going during the coffee break, because theyre just sofreaking awesome! Oh well, I said too much already, go see for yourself what this is allabout.



6/492Girl Suffering From Syndrome X Doesnt Age, Remains An Infant

Girl Suffering From Syndrome X Doesnt Age,Remains An Infant

Courtesy Greenberg Family

If you look at Brooke Greenberg, you probably

couldnt tell if theres anything special abouther at all. She seems just like any other toddler;but shes not. She is in fact 17 years old, butphysiologically speaking, shes not older thana year. Theres hardly any information availableabout her, and her parents dont talk aboutthe girl almost at all (cant really blame them);doctors scratch their heads too.

Why doesnt she age? HowardGreenberg, 52, asked of his daughter.Is she the fountain of youth?

The same question (among many others) has been asked by scientists, but no answerhas been found until now. What they do know however is that her case is unique, anopinion also shared by her doctor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine pediatricianLawrence Pakula.

Many of the best-known names in medicine, in their experience hadnot seen anyone who matched up to Brooke, Pakula said. She isalways a surprise.

However, even though she is notaging, it seems that her bodyis developing as independentparts out of sync. If you were tolook at photos of Brooke, she

is unchanged, and theres noindication that she would be in factgetting any older, and as far aseverybody knows, if this continueson, she has no reason to die. Hercondition has bafed doctors so,

that without a better solution, theyjust named it Syndrome X.

But the mystery about her gets



7/493Meet The Worlds Only Immortal Animal

even deeper. She suffered from numerous health problems, including seven perforatedulcers, a seizure and a stroke. When she was ve, she had a mass in her brain that

caused her to sleep for 14 days! Doctors diagnosed the mass as a brain tumour andsaid there was nothing they could do, but after the 14 days, she just woke up and themass was gone, with no fully satisfying explanation in sight.

Brooke Greenberg is without a doubt one of the most interesting people on the faceof the Earth, but she didnt choose the life she has, and she should by no means beturned into a lab rat. However, her body probably yields extremely valuable information,so researchers are still studying some of her analysis, in the hope of understanding moreabout aging, and why not, immortality. Speaking of immortality...

Meet The Worlds Only Immortal Animal

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellysh may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth. (c) Peter Schuchert

Let your imagination y ! But wait, if youre thinking McLeod, you couldnt be furtherfrom the truth. What you have to do is think small; not microscopic, just big enough to



8/494Meet The Worlds Only Immortal Animal

see with your naked eye. Turritopsis nutricula is the name, and immortalitys the game- this hydrozoan is considered by scientists to be the only animal (or living organismfor that matter) that cheated death.

Every living thing has to die at some point; thats just the way it works, right? Wrong!

First, a bit about our Turritopsis nutricula (lets call it Joe, shall we?) and his family:hydrozoa are a huge class of predatory animals that live mostly in saltwater, closelyrelated to jellysh and corals. Most species include both a hydroid and a medusoid

stage in their life cycle, although not all of them do.

But enough about boring hydrozoans, lets get to ours; what Joe does is he reachessexual maturity, makes little Joes, and then reverts completely to a sexually immature,colonial stage. But wait, hes even cooler than that: when theyre young theyve gotonly several tentacles, but at a mature stage, they get to 80-90 of them, which they

lose when they revert. Theyre able to return to polyp stage due to a cell change in theexternal screen (Exumbrella), which allows them to bypass death. As far as scientistshave been able to nd out, this change renders the hydrozoa virtually immortal.

If you ask me, it would be really interesting to nd out if Joe has memories from his past

life, or if he just starts of brand new each time. Im not sure how useful that would be,but it sure would be fun to nd out. Im not sure how you would go around nding that

though, and maybe more effort should be put into something else.

Lets take medicine, for example; numerous promising developments have been madein the eld, but a denitive cure for cancer or AIDS is still pretty far, and theres also the

problem with viruses becoming more and more aggresive. You should know that a bigpart in the development of new treatments and drugs is played, of course, by drugcompanies; and thats not all you should know about them...



9/495Big Pharma Spends More On Advertising Than Research

Big Pharma Spends More On Advertising ThanResearch

There has been some remarkable progressin the eld of medicine and pharmaceuticals;but things could be advancing much faster. Itsnot that there arent many brilliant scientistsworking in the eld, but rather that theres just

not enough funding to go around. So whats thematter? It cant be that drug companies donthave enough money, that would be really hardto believe. No, the problem lies somewhere

else; according to a study conducted by YorkUniversity researchers (Marc-Andr Gagnonand Joel Lexchin ), the pharmaceutical industryspends almost twice as much on advertisingthan they do on research and development.

Now of course the big guys in the pharmaindustry claim quite the opposite, but lets takea look at the numbers. Heres the United States

as an example: the industry spent 24.4% onpromotion and only 13.4% for research and

development, out of a total sum US$235.4 billion. Ouch!

Why is this happening? Well, to put it in layman terms, a drug company is a business,and a business has to make money. Nothing wrong with that per se, but its denitely

something to ponder whenever you see that banner on the bus.

Still, you probably shouldnt stress about this I know I have, after reading the study,

and all it did was gave me a stomach ache. Just like many other people, I stress abouta whole lot of things I shouldnt. A century or even decades ago, people didnt seem tobe so stressed out, did ever think about that? What has changed? Researchers haveput a lot of time and money into the study of this problem, and came up with a wholenumerous theories, but really, dont let them fool you. Heres the real deal, heres why itwas so easy in those days:



10/4969 Reasons Why There Wasnt Stress In The Good Old Days

9 Reasons Why There Wasnt Stress In The GoodOld Days

BAYERS HEROIN Yeah baby, between 1890 and 1910, heroinwas sold as a less addictive form of morphine- and it was way more fun. At some point, itwas even recommended to treat the usualcough, but only in children.Diacetylmorphine was rst synthesized by

Alder Wright, who found it to be even more

addictive than opium, and abandoned researchin this direction. However, the Bayer companyconcluded that it was very effective in treatingmoderate pains and dealing with diseases suchas asthma or tuberculosis, so they brandedit as Heroin (you just gotta love Germans).Whats interesting is that it was branded in thesame period as acetylsalicylic acid, which laterbecame known as aspirin. Its hard to say which

one of these had more success

BOEHRINGER & SOEHNEBoehringer & Soehne were located in Mannheim,Germany (Germans, again?). Never heard ofthem? Well, if they were doing today what theydid about a century ago now, youd denitely

know about them, because they proudlyadvertised their products, claiming the make thebest products from cocaine and chinine. Itwasnt only the quality that made them so good,as their ads said: Prices no higher than for anyother brand. Theres just not enough of that

these days, sadly.




OPIUM - NOT JUST FOR NEWBORNS

Stickney and Poors are known today mostly for spices, butback in the day, they also sold this syrup that helped babiessleep well; and if the opium inside wasnt enough, then the 46%alcohol would denitely do the trick.

Damn, man, thats got more alcohol than vodka! The 1900 babieswere hardcore!

COCA WINE

Believe it or not, wines with cocaine were not uncommon by any standards.Metcalf Coca Wine was one of the famous brands and everybody whodrank it said it will make you happy, and was also good as a medicinal

treatment (I bet it was).

Maltine Coca Wine was also used a lot in the U.S., especially in New York,where it was made. It was recommended for health reasons a glass aftereach meal; and for the children, just a half glass of course, because wewouldnt want to get them high... oh, I mean drunk.

Out of all the coca wines out there, without a doubt, the most appreciatedwas the Mariani Wine. It was so good, that pope Leo XIII never left the house without a

bottle of it. He loved it so much that he even awarded the producer with Vaticans GoldMedal.

AMPHETAMINE INHALERSBenzedrine (racemic amphetamine) inhalers were available in the U.S. until the mid50s, and they were so appreciated that even airlines gave them to passengers to treatdiscomfort when the plane was taking off and landing.

It was also proclaimed that more than 10 million Benzedrine inhalers had been distributed




in the rst 7 years it was released, which means they sold even better than mister

McDonalds hamburgers.

OPIUM FOR ASTHMA

Its not clear how effective the treatmentwas, but at least, the National Vaporizer

Vapor-OL (opium) Treatment no. 6 forasthma (as it was called) provided aunique way of smoking opium. You hada pretty volatile liquid that went in a sortof frying pan, heated by a small kerosenelamp placed under the pan.

DRAGEES ANTISEPTIQUES AU MENTHOL

So yeah, everything seems to be good, at least ifyou go by the name, but these dragees werebasically Cocaine throat lozenges. Yeah, cocainewas not only fun, as with the wine, but also useful.

This Belgian product was indispensable forsingers, teachers, and orators. It still is today, atleast for the singers.




MRS. WINSLOWS SOOTHING SYRUP

Of course, as a working mother, things are never easy. So when you get home, you wantto get some peace and quiet, and thats exactly what this soothing syrup was doing.Because no matter how noisy and restless a child is, 65 milligrams of morphine per uid

ounce does the trick.




COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPSCocaine is our all fun and no stress winner (perhaps theres a lesson here, somewhere,Im not sure). These cocaine toothache drops were absolute miracle drugs, and theycured aches almost instantly and they also came with a bonus: after taking them, childrenwere always happier.

I remember when I wrote this article, it absolutely blew my mind! To think that just 50years ago, heroin, cocaine, even opium were perfectly normal; and we wonder whereall the good artists are nowadays. And cocaine wine, now thats something to crank upthe party... but the pope?! Who would have guessed that... oh who am I kidding, popesdid some pretty messed up things along the way. Anyway, I really dont want to talkabout religion lets move on to something better. How about Mother Nature? If you askme, her awesomeness cannot be described in words. Did you know for example thatthe biggest tsunami ever recorded was over 500 meters tall? It was as big as about 120elephants standing on top of each other, and almost twice as big as the Eiffel tower. Orthat when Krakatau erupted, the ash it sprayed into the atmosphered circled the wholeEarth, twice? And I could go on like this for hours, but lets narrow it down a bit...



15/49118 Totally Awesome Natural Phenomena You Probably Didnt Know About

8 Totally Awesome Natural Phenomena YouProbably Didnt Know About

MAELSTROM

When you hear a name like maelstrom, you just know its about something wicked.Introduced in English by Edgar Allan Poe from the Nordic languages, where it came fromthe Dutch word maelstrom (maalstroom in modern spelling), it literally means crushingcurrent, which is quite a very good description.

A maelstom is basically a very big and powerful whirlpool, a free vortex; a free vortex withquite a downdraft. The rst described maelstrom was Moskstraumen, which is caused

by a very powerful tidal current.




Digital representation of a maelstrom

Both Poe and Jules Verne depict it as a giant vortex that leads to the bottom of theocean where it is in fact a crossroad of underwater currents. Well... they were a bit off,but still, its quite a view to catch.

FIRE RAINBOW

The term re rainbow is a bit misleading; the correct term is circumhorizon arc, which




can really impress your friends while having a beer but its kinda hard to pronounce, sowere gonna stick to re rainbow.

This type of rainbow is basically an ice halo formed by icecrystals located very high, in the cirrus clouds. This huge

amboyant lovely display of colors is really not as rare asyou might think, and how often it appears depends mostlyon location, and especially latitude. For example, in the USit can be seen several times a summer each year in thesame place, but in Central or Northern Europe its very rare.

Of course, this rainbow is not formed the way classic rainbows are formed. Light passesthrough the hexagonal ice crystals via a vertical side and leaves through the nearesthorizontal bottom face. If their alignment is just right, it makes the whole cloud shinerainbow-colored, displaying this delightful set of colours, as you can see for yourself.




WATER SPOUTS

Waterspouts seem to be taken out of the Captain Planet series. You know, earth, wind,re, all that? Well, here its all about wind and water actually, because a waterspout is in




fact a really intense columnar vortex (not necessarily a tornado) that takes place over amass of water and links it to a cumuliform cloud.




Most of the time, they are weaker than land tornadoes, but some are extremely big andbring the water upward with immense speed and power.

They can actually be tornadic or non-tornadic. The non-tornadic ones are way more

common and less dangerous, with winds being slower than 70 mph (30 m/s). Tornadicwaterspouts are similar at their core to a tornado, but they add huge masses of water tothe show, making it a scenery hard to forget.

The even rarer cousin of the waterspout is the snowspout (or icespout). They arebasically a very rare type of waterspouts that form at the base of a snow squall. Therehave only been six (!) pictures taken of such an event, so theres not really much we cangive you here.

THE HONDURAN RAIN OF FISHOh, this ones good. Weve all probably heard about this in one form of another, butmost just chalk it up to folklore. Well, this isnt the case! The department of Yoro is host

of one of the most bizarre and amazing phenomena to ever take place: the rain of sh,that takes place every year for more than a century now.




Each year, between the monthsof May and July a dark cloudsappears in the sky, followed bya massive thunderstorm, it rains

a lot, the whole nine yards. Itall lasts 2-3 hours, at the endof which people go out on thestreet where they nd hundreds

of living sh on the ground;

yeah, they eat them.

There arent any clearconclusions, but a theory thats

accepted sometimes is that thestrong winds and waterspoutstake the sh from 200 km

away. However, a signicant number of scientists claim they are not sea water sh, but

fresh water sh that swim from a nearby river to an underwater current, and some sh

stray from the current and appear on the ground. But heres the good part: NationalGeographic sent a team to investigate this, and they found that the sh arent located in

any surrounding bodies of water. Because they are blind, scientists hypothesize the sh

live deep in underground rivers. Far out !




MOONBOWS

Weve all (probably) seen rainbows, at day. But how many of us have seen rainbowsat night? Yeah, this can actually happen, due to the light reected by the moon (thus

moonbow, or lunar rainbow or white rainbow). Of course the light coming from the moonis much, much fainter than that emitted by the Sun, so as a result, so is the formedrainbow; most of the time, its even hard for the human eye to separate the colors there.




The biggest chance you have of ever seeing a moonbow is when the moon is full (oralmost full), when its the brightest, but there are other conditions required. The sky hasto be very dark (close to black), and, of course, there must be rain falling opposite to themoon.




PENITENTESThese sharp ice spikes can only be found at high altitudes.Ice (or snow) formations that take the form of blades orspikes varying from a few centimeters to 2 meters (or evenmore) have fascinated researchers since Darwins time, ashe was the rst to ever describe them.

He had to squeeze his way through such a eld and was the

rst to notice they generally follow the direction of the sun.

But how are they formed? The mechanism of their birth is abit complicated, and it relies on a process called differentialablation. For penitentes to form, the dew point has to bebelow freezing. As a result, the snow will sublimate, whichrequires more energy than melting.

The geometry of the surface provides a positive feedback mechanism for radiation,

which is trapped by multiple reections, creating hollows. These hollows, combined withwind that increases the dew point temperatures, provides the right conditions for the




sublimation to create the steep walls and peaks.

SUPERCELLS

Supercells are rotating updrafts within severe thunderstorms; theyre dangerous, big,and bloody scary.




A supercell can be dened as athunderstorm with a deep rotating updraft (mesocyclone). (c) MIKE HOLLINGSHEAD / SOLENT




They can appear anywhere in the world given the right meteorological conditions, butmost of the times they appear in the Great Plains of the US, last generally 2-3 hours andthey sometimes split in 2, with the two resulting storms going in opposite directions.

The supercells usually produce huge amounts of hail, torrential rainfall, strong winds,

and substantial downbursts and they are often carriers of giant hail. Scientists havegiven quite an interest in supercells, because, as you could have guessed from the pics,theyre really dangerous. Really.

ICE CIRCLES

Ice Circles are pretty much what youd expect from them.

However, theyre very rare, appearing only in slow moving waters from cold climates suchas Northern Europe or America, but some have also been spotted in Britain, including ahuge one bigger than 3 meters. There are two types of ice circles. Here are the generalnecessary conditions for the rst type to form.




No rain and temperatures below 0 Celsius for several days near a slow river bend. Thus,the water creates a force that is called rotational shear and breaks a chunk of ice,twisting it around and grinding it to the surrounding ice, turning it into a perfect circle.

The second type is perhaps even morespectacular. Also called ice pans, theseformations are surface slabs of ice thatform in the middle of the river, and noton its side. Theyre explained by

sudden shifts of temperature. As thewater cools off, it gives away heat thatcreates frazil ice (randomly oriented iceneedles loose in the water). These iceparticles can, of course, form an icepan, and if the lake has enough frazilice and the current is slow enough, theice pan can reach the sizes that bafe

people and even become a hanging dam.

Words fall short when it comes to describing these wonders of nature, and we denitely

need a reminder sometimes of just how small we are; but this doesnt mean that mancant create amazing things on the contrary, we have all the inspiration we need,and you can bet the human race is gifted with inventivity and work power. Even more,we dont necessarily need technology to create something brilliant, and if youre notconvinced, these artifacts will denitely convince you. Keep in mind however there is still

a lot of controversy surrounding some of them, and I would bet my acoustic guitar that

at least one or two arent for real, but still, its worth giving it a thought or two.



29/4925Amazing Unexplained Artifacts

Amazing Unexplained Artifacts

Every once in a while archaeologists (and sometimes regular Joes) make some remarkablediscoveries. Stunned, they are often unable to explain what it is theyve found, how itcame into existence, or ascertain its value. This is a comprehensive list of such artifacts;

artifacts that many believe should have never existed given the discerned age/period oftheir creation.

THE LONDON HAMMER A TOOL OLDER THAN HISTORY

In June 1936 (or 1934 according to some accounts), Max Hahn and his wife Emma wereon a walk when they noticed a rock with wood protruding from its core. They decidedto take the oddity home and later cracked it open with a hammer and a chisel. Ironically,what they found within seemed to be an archaic hammer of sorts.




A team of archaeologists checked it, and as it turns out, the rock encasing the hammerwas dated back more than 400 million years; in this case the hammer itself would normalyhave to be older. Additionally, a section of the handle has begun the transformation tocoal. Creationists, of course, were all over this. The hammers head, made of more than96% iron, is far more pure than anything nature could have achieved without an assistfrom modern technology.

THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM A GREEK ANCIENTCOMPUTER

The Antikythera mechanism has been labeled therst known mechanical computer. Found in a shipwreck

off the Greek island of Antikythera, it was designedto calculate astronomical positions. Consisting ofa box withdials on the outside and a very complex

assembly of gear wheels mounted within, its aboutas complex as an 18th century top-notch clock.

The level of sophistication utilized by the devicehas forced scientists to accept that theirperceptions of ancient Greek engineering werefaulty, but in their defense, nothing similar to this

exists or is mentioned in any known writings from theperiod of its creation. Based on the knowledge we do have,

this mechanism shouldnt even exist.




According to Professor Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University, who led the team studyingthe mechanism:

This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The designis beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics aredesigned just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done itextremely carefully. He added: in terms of historic and scarcity value,

I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona

Lisa.

THE DROPA STONESI In 1938, an expedition led by archaeologist Dr.

Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula in Chinamade an astonishing discovery. Nearby caves

held traces of the ancient culture which onceoccupied them.

Buried by the dusts of time, hundreds of stonedisks lay scattered about the caves interior.Nothing too spectacular you may think,but the disks turned out to be eerily similarto phonograph records nine inches indiameter, a circle cut into their centers and an

obvious spiral groove. They are believed to bemore than 10,000 years old. But the spiral, asit turns out, is composed of tiny hieroglyphics.

When studied and translated, it was revealed that the discs tell the amazing yetimprobable story of spaceships that crashed into the mountains, piloted by people whocalled themselves the Dropa.

THE SAQQARA BIRD AN EGYPTIAN PLANEDiscovered during the 1898 excavationof the Pa-di-Imen tomb in Saqqara,Egypt, the Saqqara bird is (as you couldhave guessed) a bird shaped artifactmade from the wood of a sycamore tree.Weighing in at just under 40 grams andwith a wingspan of more than 7 inches,

its been dated back to approximately200 BC. Lack of documentation and




other data has led to some speculation. In fact, the ancient egyptians were well aware ofthe principles of aviation. Was it simply the toy of an afuent Egyptian child? Did it serve

some kind of ceremonial purpose? Regardless, the object has few realistic bird traits.With its vertical tail, resembling that of an airplane or glider, it resembles no known bird.Scientists came to the conclusion that it couldnt be effective as an aircraft due to lack

of technology, but it could have in fact been a glider.

THE BAGHDAD BATTERY A 2000 YEAR OLD BATTERY

This device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clayvessel, inside of which was a copper cylinderheld in place by asphalt. Within the cylinder,archaeologists found an oxidized iron rod. In 1940,Wilhelm Knig (the German director of the National

Museum of Iraq) suggested that these could begalvanic cells, perhaps used for electroplating goldonto silver objects. Nobody has been able to provehim wrong, especially since it only needed to belled with an acid or alkaline substance to produce

an electric charge.

UNEXPLAINABLE FOSSILS AND METAL OBJECTS

Geology is a relatively new science.The progress and developmentsmade through experimentation areabsolutely remarkable and havehelped in many other elds. Still, there

are some things yet to be explained.Though the honeycomb pattern ofpaleodictyon is already well known,we remain stumped as to how suchshapes and gures are created.

For example, a fossil of a humanhandprint was found in limestoneestimated to be more than 110 millionyears, a fossilized human nger with

just as much, and the aparent discovery of a human footprint that possibly sporteda sandal which dates to more than 300 million years ago. These amazing fossilized

imprints/remains have left the scientic community scratching their collective heads. Notto mention the 65 million year old semi-ovoid metallic tubes being dug out of France,




the unusual block of coal discovered 124 years ago which contained a metal cube thatcouldnt have formed naturally within the lump, andmany more such things

THE PIRI REIS MAP

In 1929, a group ofhistorians made whatcan only be described asan amazing discovery,painted on the skinof a gazelle. Afterstudy and research,they found that it is agenuine map drawn in

1513 by Piri Reis, a welldocumented admiralof the Turkish navy. Hedepicts Europe andNorth Africa, the coastof Brazil, several islands(Azores, Canary Islands,and the mythical islandof Antilia), and even

Antarctica, whichwas thought to bediscovered more than300 years later.

The most puzzling thingis not that it showswe need to rethinkthe chronology for anumber of exploratorydiscoveries, but that itdescribes Antarcticastopography as not

being masked by ice and in great detail. The last time that occured was more than 6000years ago. Tell me then. How did a Turkish admiral from half a millenium ago map a

continent thats been covered by ice for the last 6000 years?




THE NAZCA DRAWINGS

The Nazca drawings (or lines) denitely have something otherworldly about them.

Discovered in 1930 when the US inaugurated two new commercial lines theycover 450 square km and some measure more than 200m in length. They depict lines,

geometrical gures, animals and gures that we havent entirely gured out yet (manybelieve them to be constellations). Whether made for the gods or for some other reason,




its obvious that they were meant to be seen from the sky. Scientists have had troubletrying to gure out how they could have been designed and created without somebody

directing the work from above. We can only marvel at these amazing gures and continue

to wonder how and why they were created by people called the Nazca.




THE MYSTERIOUS CITY OF NAN MADOL A CITY BUILT ONCORALS

The city of Nan Madol was built between200 B.C. 800 A.D., on a coral reef nearMicronesia. It consisted of about 100

articial islands made from huge basaltblocks and connected with viaducts.From the start, it dazzles us with a mixof the bizarre and grandeur and from thestart it seems incongruous; 250 milliontons of offshore basalt in the middle ofnowhere. How were these huge blocksquarried, transported, and placed in theperfect spot? Even by todays standards,

it would an impressive engineering feat.Additionally, the reasoning behind its




development remains a mystery. Archaelogists have few clues as to what happened tothe civilization responsibile for its creation.

THE SACSAYHUAMAN WALLS

Near the city of Cuzco, more than 3500 meters above sea level, these amazing walls

rst fascinated the Spanish conquistadores. They were astonished to discover thesestructures constructed by natives, who, according to them, were ignorant and lacked theability of logical reasoning required to create such wonders. They are in fact 3 concentricwalls, the average being roughly 360 meters in length and 6 meters in height, madefrom limestone blocks that weigh about 300 tons each. The engineers didnt use mortaror any other kind of cement to bind the walls, but instead they packed the materials soclosely that even a sharp knife cant be wedged between 2 blocks. Scientists have triedto achieve this at a much smaller scale and have failed in their efforts to replicate the tight

joints of the Sacsayhuaman walls.



38/4934The Sky Burial

The Sky Burial

First of all, it has to be said that this once common burial practice in Tibet is prettyhard to digest for our civilized world, and theres a big chance youll nd the pictures

shocking. As adepts of Buddhism, Tibetans believe the single most important part of aperson is its spirit, and after death, there is no reason to preserve the body, which is justa hollow vessel. Also, from a more practical point of view, wood is quite scarce and thesoil is really rocky, making it hard to dig a grave. Thats why, after somebody died, the

corpse was cut in specic locations and placed on a mountaintop where vultures feedoff of it or it just decomposes.

My rst impression when I rst heard of it was quite severe; but thinking about it better,

it does seem to make sense. I mean, digging a grave would be extremely hard andimpractical, while nding enough fuel or wood for cremation would be practically

impossible. Also, the spiritual meaning is not hard to understand, if you just take a stepoutside the western ideology. The deceased is providing food for a part of nature, whichis a proof of generosity, one of the most important things in Buddhism.

The Tibetan name for this ceremony isjhator, which literally means giving alms to the



39/4935The Sky Burial

birds.

Sky burial and open cremation may initially appear grotesque forWesterners, especially if they have not reected on their own burialpractice of embalming. For Tibetan Buddhists, sky burial and cremation are

templates of instructional teaching on the impermanence of life. (unknown)

It appeared grotesque for the Chinese

government too, who prohibited it from1950 to 1980.

To this day, westerners, while sometimesallowed to witness sky burials, are notpermitted to lm or take pictures of the

procedures. The full procedure is quiteexpensive, and for those who cant affordit, simply placing the deceased on a high

rock is the an option.



40/49367 Animals That Lived Along With Your Grandparents But Not With You

The ceremony takes place in light spirit, as the rogyapas (monks) who perform theceremony talk to each other as when doing any other physical labor. There are differentways to do this; basically beating the body and bones together to a pulp is not uncommon,while some witnesses reported breaking the bones and cartilages with sledge hammers.

The vulture in this ceremony is nicknamed the Eurasian Griffon, and even with its bigappetite, it cant eat all that its being offered, because in some places there are even afew sky burials per day.

I have had very interesting discussions regarding this ceremony and numerous validpoints of view were taken. Please share your opinion, I would love to hear what you thinkabout it

The Eurasian Griffon I was telling you about earlier almost became extinct, but it ultimatelysurvived, and with a lot of care and patience it is now being reintroduced into other

habitats; however, other species werent so lucky. There are countless species thatdisappear, never to be seen again. Countless species of animals are extinct forever, andwe will never see them again, or never see them at all...




7 Animals That Lived Along With Your GrandparentsBut Not With You

Japanese Sea LionBelieved to be extinct since 1950, theJapanese Sea Lion lived in the coastalareas of the Japanese Archipelago andthe Korean Peninsula. Weighing up to450 to 560 kg and reaching lengths of2.3 to 2.5 meters (the males; femaleswere smaller), they preferred sandy

open beaches, but they sometimesused rocky areas for breeding too.Harvest records from Japanesecommercial shermen in the early

1900s show that as many as 3,200sea lions were harvested, and in totalabout 17.000 specimens were killed,

enough to cause their extinction.

Desert Rat KangarooIt lived in the driest, hottest and mostdesolate environments in Central

Australia, relying on its fantasticresistance and independance of water;in fact, it was so prepared that it evenshunned the succulent plants of thesandhills. It was rst sighted by

Europeans in 1841 and was not seenagain for 90 years. The last sightingwas in 1935, which makes it quite amysterious creature. They were ableto travel enormous distances and highspeeds, and they paused only to die.




Phantom shiner

This elusive species of sh was once endemic to the Rio Grande basin and ranged from

central New Mexico to southernmost Texas. Not too much information is available aboutthem, and they were only spotted irregularly and only several times. The last knownspecimen was recorded in Mexico in 1975.

Labrador duck

The labrador duck was never common; its believedthat this species of duck has been extinct since 1875.Its also believed that it was the rst bird to be extinct in

North America since 1500. It was also called the PiedDuck and it fed on small molluscs. Its extinctions isquite a mystery, because it was not sought much by

hunters. Still, humans are still probably responsable forits extinction as they caused the decline in mussels andother shellsh on which they are believed to have fed in

their winter quarters, due to growth of population and industry on the Eastern Seaboard;this meant that the duck had no food left, and was practically hopeless.

Quagga

The Quagga was a subspecies of theplains zebra which lived in great numbersin South Africas Cape Province and thesouthern part of the Orange Free State. Itgot this name as anonomatopoeia, being

said to resemble its call. The quaggawas the rst extinct creature to have

its DNA studied although the only livephotographed member was the Regents

Park Zoo mare in London.



43/4939The Worlds Most Polluted Cities

Tasmanian Wolf

Its believed that the Tasmanian Wolf hasbeen extinct for about 65 years. Despite itsappearance and its popular name, this animalwas not in fact a species of wolf, nor was it adog, which it also resembled. It was actually amarsupial the largest carnivorous marsupialin recent times and was closely related tothe kangaroo and the wombat. Its extinction isattributed solely to human activities.

Caspian Tiger

Caspian Tigers lived in China, Tajikistan, Iran,Afghanistan and Turkey, being the westernmostsubspecies of tiger. Its believed that theybecame extinct in the late 1950s, though therehave been several alleged sightings of the tiger.Being the third largest species of tiger ever towalk the face of the Earth, it still couldnt resist

the massive hunting parties which killed themfor their fur.

While planning a massive land reclamation program in the beginning of the 20th centurythe Russian governments worked heavily to eradicate the Caspian tiger. Having no roomfor the tiger in their plans, the Russian army was instructed to exterminate all tigers foundaround the area of the Caspian Sea, a project that was carried out very efciently. Three

cheers for the Russian government.




The Worlds Most Polluted Cities

Time has shown, man isnt really good at taking care of animals and habitats it coexistswith. Then again, what could one expect when we cant even take care of ourselves.Some cities on our planet seem to be taken out of post-apocalyptic novels, and here are

just a few of them, rest assured, there are tens, if not hundreds of cities just as polluted.

Linfen, China

Potentially Affected People: 3,000,000

Source of Pollution: Automobile and industrial emissions

The Shanxi Province in which Linfen is situated plays a crucial role in Chinas huge andever growing coal industry, which amounts to two thirds of the nations energy. Buteverything comes at a price: inhabitants claim they literally choke with coal dust in theevenings. The extremely high quantities of pollution are taking a serious toll on the health

of Linfens inhabitants, especially the children. Its at least conforting to hear, though,that Linfen plans to shut down 160 of 196 of its iron foundries and 57 of 153 of its coal




producing plants and replace them with cleaner more efcient plants; important words

here: plans to.

La Oroya, Peru

Potentially Affected People: 35,000

Source of Pollution: Heavy metal mining and processing

The problem with this mining city is easy to guess People have been exposed to lead,copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide for almost a century now. Ninety-nine percent of childrenliving in and around La Oroya have way more lead in their blood than acceptable. Sulfurdioxide concentrations also exceed the World Health Organization guidelines by a factorof ten and the vegetation has been destroyed by sulfuric acid rain.




Norilsk, Russia


Source of Pollution: Major nickel and related metals mining and processing

Initially founded as a slave labor camp, this Siberian industrial city is the northernmostmajor city of Russia and the second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arctic Circle.Here the snow is black, the air tastes like sulfur and the night landscape seems takenfrom one of Tolkiens novels. The local population is severely affected by the air qualitywhere air samples exceed the maximum allowable concentrations for both copper andnickel. It also houses the worlds largest heavy metals smelting complex.




Dzerzhinsk, Russia


Source of Pollution: Cold War-era chemical weapons manufacturing

As weird as it may seem, Norilsk is probably not the most polluted city in Russia. Untilthe end of the Cold War, Dzerzhinsk was among Russias principal production sites ofchemical weapons. Even today, its one of the most important chemical manufactureplaces in Russia. The city was also home to a leaded gasoline factory. About a quarterof the people there work in chemical factories. For men, the life expectancy there is 42,and for women 47.




Chernobyl, Ukraine

Potentially Affected People: Initially 5.5 million, now disputed numbers.

Source of Pollution: Meltdown of reactor core in 1986

Pictures are too shocking and words cant express how much damage the meldownof that reactor core has caused. Undoubtedly the most polluted city in the world, thenuclear tragedy caused a huge number of deaths and millions of mutations and problemsfor people only in the surrounding areas. Even today, twenty years later, the 19-mileexclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable due to the meltdown that wasmore than 100 times more powerful than the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Someestimate that more than 100 tons of uranium and other radioactive products, such asplutonium, could be released if there is another accident. Chernobyl is also thought tocontain some 2,000 tons of combustible materials.



49/49

Thank you!

Well I honestly hope youve liked it, folks! But hey, if youve made it this far, it probablywasnt so bad, was it? But now you tell me, how was it, really? Did it leave you anydifferent than before reading it? Has it broadened your perspective, or did it make youfeel tiny? If it ignited your passion, spread the wings of your imagination, impressedyou, disgusted you, made you go WOW!, if it tore the walls of your perception, then,my friend, you have made me a happy man. This is not the best book in the world, it

most denitely has a lot of aws, but if it moved you, than it served its purpose; and forthat, for letting us reach you, we would like to thank you, and we would like to ask yousomething: Dont be a prisoner of yourself! This is our world, take a look and see whathappens in it; and guess what, its the same world we wake up, drink coffee and havebreakfast, the same world we go to school or work in - and what a world it is! Hopefully,weve shown you a small fraction of that, in all its splendour.

If youre a long time reader of ZME Science then you almost denitely know this, and

if not, youve probably found out already: we make mistakes. We dont intend to be

perfect, because we know we cant do it. Were just a bunch of students, not nativeEnglish speakers, trying to do our best and make the world a better place, one post ata time; and were constantly trying to improve, every single day. For this we would like tothank you, because its you guys that do this. Its you who support us, and ask for moreand more from us. Whether you like it or not, you guys play an important role in our lives,and hopefully, we can give everything back - tenfold.

Heres Andrei Emilian Mihai and Tiberius Puiu, thanking you, and hoping youll be withus for time to come !

Oh, and by the way, if you like this, dont like this, or if you have something to say, wedbe thrilled to hear from you! Also, if you guys like it, you can bet theres gonna be asequel!


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