History

Early closed-core transformer of the Déri, Bláthy and Zipernowsky type, a ring of dark wire windings between two wooden discs, in a museum case beside a smaller transformer.

01/11/2026
Science

Who Invented Alternating Current? The Dated Record

The 1785 Boulton and Watt engine from Whitbread's London brewery, now in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, with its large flywheel and the sun-and-planet gears that turn it

31/10/2026
Science

Did James Watt Invent the Steam Engine? The Dates, Checked Against the Patents

Model of Nikola Tesla's induction motor with its stator coils and short-circuit rotor, Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade

24/10/2026
Electronics

What did Nikola Tesla invent? His patents, and what he did not

A nearly full moon rising low over a mountain ridge, the horizon setting where the moon illusion is strongest

20/09/2026
Cosmology & Astrophysics, Science

Moon Illusion: The Horizon Moon Is Farther and Smaller

The view down from the Eiffel Tower over the Seine, the drop Franz Reichelt jumped into in his parachute suit in 1912

19/09/2026
Science

Franz Reichelt’s Eiffel Tower Jump: The Parachute Was Big Enough

A Soviet Tu-95 Bear bomber in flight, the aircraft type modified to drop the Tsar Bomba

18/09/2026
Science

Tsar Bomba Yield: The 100-Megaton Bomb Nobody Built

Painterly illustration of the Kola Superdeep Borehole drilling derrick silhouetted against a crimson arctic horizon

13/09/2026
Science

Kola Superdeep Borehole: The Rock Beat the Drill

A Vela nuclear-detection satellite, whose bhangmeter recorded the disputed 1979 double flash

12/09/2026
Science

Vela Incident: Why a Perfect Detector Still Divides Scientists

Icicles on the launch tower at Kennedy Space Center on the morning of Challenger's launch, 28 January 1986

11/09/2026
Science

Challenger O-Ring Temperature: The 53°F Line NASA Crossed

Portrait of chemist Thomas Midgley Jr., who developed leaded gasoline for the Ethyl Corporation

10/09/2026
Science

Thomas Midgley’s Leaded Gasoline Choice Wasn’t About Chemistry

A domed stone column resembling the US Capitol, crumbling on one side in front of a large red sun

09/01/2026
Opinions

Is the American Empire’s Dominance About to End?

Switzerland Before Lenin

27/02/2025
Opinions

Switzerland Before Lenin: How Geneva Became a Haven for Russian Revolutionaries

The Salone dei Cinquecento in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, where Leonardo and Michelangelo were commissioned to paint rival battle murals; its walls now carry Vasari's frescoes

24/12/2024
Lifestyle

Da Vinci vs. Michelangelo: The Greatest Genius in the Renaissance

Superconducting magnets lining the primary proton beamline at the J-PARC accelerator complex in Japan, with safety cones along the walkway

22/12/2024
Particle Physics

Anatoli Bugorski: Head Inside a Particle Accelerator

Replica skulls of human ancestors, including Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, mounted along a timeline at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore

21/12/2024
Opinions

Human Evolution: Predicting Human Form in 10,000 Years