Take a bite of bread, and you will taste sweetness in just 30 seconds. No sugar has been added to the bread. Instead, a substance in your saliva breaks down starch. Within one bite of bread, it cle...
In this article, the data you are reading travels through optical cables wrapped in a layer of yellow fiber. That yellow fiber is aramid. It is five times stronger than steel yet lighter than water...
Romanticism was an intellectual and artistic movement that emerged from the late 18th to the early 19th century. It is far different from the everyday idea of romance associated with love‑making or...
Absurdism, a philosophical stance that took shape in the first half of the 20th century. Albert Camus is regarded as the core spokesperson for absurdism. He believed there exists a fundamental con...
Chips inside our smartphones are literally polished on a kind of abrasive pad. This is no metaphor. In chip fabrication, there is a process that takes place before lithography and after etching. Af...
Do you ever struggle with social anxiety? Why do we feel nervous around strangers or when speaking in public? Some people rehearse their speeches three times in their heads, terrified of making mis...
You may have never heard of this metal, yet without it, 99% of all electronic devices would fail. Tantalum is the 73‑rd element on the periodic table, with a melting point of 3017 °C — over 1000 °...
Sisyphus, a man doomed to failure, yet who keeps hauling his boulder up to the mountain summit time and again. With futile persistence, he proclaims to fate: even with no hope in sight, he will not...
Phosphorus is an element shared by the bones in your body and the batteries inside your smartphones. It is indispensable to all life on Earth. The backbone of DNA is held together by phosphodiester...
Do you follow your parents’ advice? Or would you live up to your parents’ expectations? When you ponder this question, it is far more than simply deciding whether you should obey your parents. It ...