While the world in the 21st century is extremely interconnected, and we can easily talk with someone on the other side of the world, there are still numerous tribes of indigenous peoples who remain completely outside our society. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations and the non-profit group Survival International estimate…
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire dominated the production and commerce of silk in Europe. For centuries, silk contributed heavily to the Byzantine economy, while Costantinople was the main silk-weaving center in all of Europe. Byzantine silk was a prestigious commodity sold at high prices, and was known for its bright colors and complex…
Sitting on the southern shores of the Gulf of Finland, Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. In fact, it houses a third of the country’s entire population, and it is also its main economic and cultural hub, as well as its main tourist destination. The city is known for its beautiful and…
The Ryukyu Islands are a chain of islands that extends between Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan, and Taiwan, marking the border between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. They are part of Japan and they are formed by a series of small archipelagos, from north to south: the…
In July 1994, we witnessed for the first time ever an extraterrestrial collision in our Solar System in real time, when the comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. This incredible event was followed by many people and extensively covered by the media, while astronomers all over the world studied the collision. Thanks to this impact…
The ancient civilizations of Greece and China at one point dominated the Western and Eastern world, respectively. Their history was almost completely separate, and they only interacted thanks to merchants along the Silk Road. The story of how this route was initiated is linked with the expansion of the Greeks towards the east, and the…
Located at the southern tip of South America, Ushuaia is the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province, in Argentina. The city is located on a bay along the Beagle Channel, which separates Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, the largest island in the archipelago, from some minor islands to the south. With a population…
Animals, plants, and other organisms on Earth have widely different lifespans, as for example many species of insects live just a few days, while some plants can survive for centuries or even millennia. Humans can live longer than most other animals, as many people can reach an age of over 100 years. The oldest person…
Deep among the hills of Southern Africa, in the modern country of Zimbabwe, lie the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, the capital of what was once the richest kingdom of this part of the world. This is known as the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, and from the 13th to the 15th century it ruled over a large…
Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 85 million people around the world, with 67 million native speakers. Most of these of course live in Italy, where it is spoken by most of the population, and other European countries such as Switzerland and San Marino, where Italian is an official language, as well as…