Trinitite: How the First Nuclear Bomb Turned Sand to Glass

It was theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer who chose the codename "Trinity," though he could never remember why. As a participant in the Manhattan Project, he oversaw the construction of four atomic bombs. By the spring of 1945, the U.S. military had started looking for a place to test one of them out. Sites in California, Colorado and Texas were considered before the Pentagon chose a patch of terrain at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. See more

It's a Bird! It's a Spider! It's Pelican Spider!

In 1854, arachnologists examining a 50-million-year-old piece of amber discovered the specimen of a pelican spider frozen in time. They named the spider for its look — the massive jaws and mandibles give the spider's head an appearance oddly similar to that of the large seabird. The scientists who discovered the pelican spider assumed it was extinct, but in the late 19th century researchers discovered extant species in the Archaeidae family alive, kicking and biting in Madagascar. See More

Cryptocurrencies: The Creation of AI, Aliens or Even the Antichrist?

The Benefits of Talking About Yourself in the Third Person

When we lose weight, where does the lost weight go?

After weeks of trimming a few calories here, exercising a little more there, you put on a pair of jeans, and like magic, the waist has grown. You button them up to behold a welcome space between your belly and the fabric. How did that happen? With 66 percent of the adult American population either overweight or obese [source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], a lot of people are trying to drop some pounds. Through dieting, exercise, surgery or a host of other alternatives, they hope to reach the goal of a smaller body. But to where does that weight disappear when the hard work pays off? See More >>>