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2 votes
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Biosphere 2 - The lost history of one of the world’s strangest science experiments
13 votes -
The cataclysmic break that (maybe) occurred in 1950
7 votes -
The Hitler Beetle and other oddities of scientific naming
4 votes -
When giant scorpions swarmed the seas
13 votes -
Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’
14 votes -
What defines a kilogram? Before standardization, units of measurement were often manipulated by tyrants to cheat peasants and steal land.
9 votes -
Was Roman concrete better?
6 votes -
Mount Vesuvius murdered its victims in more brutal ways than we thought
4 votes -
Shockwaves from WWII bombing raids reached the edge of space
13 votes -
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity first proven correct at what is now Australian lawn bowls club
3 votes -
Newly discovered letter by Galileo shows that he lightly edited his original words to appease the Catholic Church
10 votes -
Forging Islamic science
6 votes -
The spectre of smallpox lingers
9 votes -
Our pungent history: Sweat, perfume, and the scent of death
4 votes -
'A Nazi in all but name': Author argues Asperger's syndrome should be renamed
18 votes -
Michael Faraday - The Chemical History of a Candle [1848] (Probably the best scientific talk ever)
6 votes -
How learning science is catching up to Mr. Rogers
4 votes -
The location for Stonehenge may have been chosen due to the presence of a natural geological feature
I watched a documentary about Stonehenge tonight, and it proposed the theory that the location for Stonehenge was chosen because of a natural geological feature in the area. There's a man-made...
I watched a documentary about Stonehenge tonight, and it proposed the theory that the location for Stonehenge was chosen because of a natural geological feature in the area.
There's a man-made path that proceeds south-west towards Stonehenge: "The Avenue". This path was built around the same era as Stonehenge itself. If you walk westward along The Avenue on the winter solstice, you'll be facing the point on the horizon where the sun sets. However, under The Avenue, there's an old natural geological formation from the time of the Ice Age: a series of ridges in the rock which just coincidentally align with the sunset on the winter solstice (an "axis mundi"). Before Stonehenge was built, there was a chalk knoll on that location. That meant that you could walk along a natural geological path towards the sunset on the shortest day of the year, and there was a local geological landmark in front of you.
The theory is that these natural geological formations coincidentally aligning with an astronomical phenomenon made the site a special one for early Britons. That's why there was a burial site there, and later Stonehenge was built there.
Here's the article by the archaeologist who discovered the Ice Age ridges: Researching Stonehenge: Theories Past and Present
13 votes -
Feeding the gods: Hundreds of skulls reveal massive scale of human sacrifice in Aztec capital
7 votes -
What a Russian smile means - How culture and history make American and Russian smiles different
8 votes