At the southernmost portion of the Earth lies a continent known as Antarctica. It is a landmass that is underlying the South Pole, encircled by the Southern Ocean, and lies completely south of Antarctic Circle in the Antarctic region. The continent of Antarctica is considered to be the driest, coldest, and windiest of all the continents on the Earth and it also has the highest average elevation. Permanent residents are nowhere to be found in this area but there are thousands of researchers who are spread out across the continent residing at their various research stations.
Who Discovered Antarctica
Since the time of Ptolemy, there is already an existing notion that Southern Land or Terra Australis existed to balance the landmasses of the north. Maps during the 16th century were already depicting large landmass on the southern part of the Earth. This hypothetical landmass is constantly present in any European map until the 18th century.
Captain James Cook is the one who discovered Antarctica...
Who discovered zero?
Discovery of Zero
We can’t say for sure who discovered zero before anyone else. But the oldest records of its use are found in the ruins of Babylonia in circa 300 BC. The Babylonians were the first to invent a place hold number system, that is the use of a number to “compress” and cycle figures for easier counting and representation. While our modern system uses 10 as its place value, they used the number 60. This is the sexigesimal system used when counting minutes and seconds today.
Babylonian Use of Zero
The Babylonians, however, only used zero as a place holder. In other words, it was to clarify representation of numbers in written form. The Babylonians used cuneiform symbols called wedges and crescents to stand for numbers. To avoid confusion with large numbers (for example, 40 X 40 + 1 versus 40 + 1), they invented a zero symbol to mean a blank, a break. But they did not quite think of zero as a number.
Zero and the Mayan Calendar
At about 400 AD, the...
The story of who discovered Dna is a story of broken friendship that gave way to one of the greatest breakthroughs in Science. But it is a wonder what could have happened if the friendship had gone smoothly to the end.
Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling was a physical chemist who put forward a Dna model out of practical thinking that mathematical estimation in the 1950s. He was fascinated with Dna research. He would have been the man who discovered Dna if not for his aloofness from other English scientists. This kept him from being updated as other scientists were, like Watson and Crick.
James Watson and Francis Crick
The discovery of Dna or deoxyribonucleic acid happened when James Watson and Francis Crick were working together to find out the configuration hemoglobin. As they were doing so, they stumbled upon this particular acid cell. After much collaboration with other scientists, they were later credited with being the men who discovered Dna. Today, their names are associated with the discovery...
Benoit Mandelbrot is usually credited with discovering fractals in 1975. Mandelbrot was the one who invented the word. He was also the first to represent them visually. But some facts about fractals were known to mathematicians as far back as the 17th century.
Early Fractal Research
A fractal can be described as a pattern that is repeated at every scale. It cannot be replicated by classical geometry. The concept of self similarity was first brought up by the philosopher and mathematician Lebinz in the 17th century.
It wasn’t until 1872 before a function appropriate to be termed a fractal came into being. Karl Weierstrass showed an instance of a function that was continuous but could not be differentiated.
This definition was improved upon by Helge von Koch in 1904 when he defined it as a Koch curve. A study of the facts about fractals will show it is now called the Koch snowflake. In 1915, Wallow Sierpinski created a triangle and a carpet.
In 1938, Paul Levy came up with another fractal...
A study of the facts about the conch shell shows that in 1398, it was used to refer to all sea creatures with shells. However, its discovery and use is much older than that. In Mayan art, the conch was depicted as an ink container. The American aboriginals used it as an ornament.
The Conch Shell as Food
The conch shell’s meat can be consumed raw when eaten with salads. It can also be cooked and eaten like hamburgers. Some people find the white meat to be the most delicious part. Some East Asian culinary cuisines chop it into lean slices. It is fried or steamed.
Other food facts about the conch shell will show it is eaten with soups in the West Indies. It is also a popular dish in the Bahamas. In Guam the meat is dipped in soy sauce and flavored with hot sauce or peppers. In El Salvador, the meat is flavored with onion, lemon juice and other species. In Puerto Rico it is flavored with orange juice and eaten raw.
Other Uses
Conch has been used as a musical instrument for a long time. Aside...
