Author: Ms. R.

The research vessel bobbed in the southwestern Pacific like a toy boat in a bathtub. Three scientists watched numbers scroll across a monitor as the minutes ticked by on another 12-hour shift. The instruments collecting that raw data had been deployed days earlier in a line on the ocean floor. Now, the ship was towing a fish-shaped transmitter just above the seabed to pick up the remote devices’ signals and send them back to the vessel. Things were going……

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A raging storm in November 1898 permanently altered the course of two rivers on the South Shore of Massachusetts, filling their original inlet with a lovely stretch of sand that is today’s Rexhame public beach in the coastal town of Marshfield. The storm, known as the Portland Gale, created the beach and carved a new mouth for the North River three miles up the coast, while extending the length of the South River by three miles. It also made……

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In 2010, the United States Census reported the population of Dixville Notch, an unincorporated community less than 50 miles south from the Canadian border, as just 12 people. Yet these 12 people make up one of the most trivial phenomenons in the United States: They’re the first citizens to vote in the U.S. Presidential Election. How? Well, the answer is simple. The residents of the town merely meet together in the ballroom of the grand Balsams Hotel (also in……

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Before World War II saw the historical region of Masuria in East Prussia fall into Polish hands, German engineers had long dreamt of building a canal to connect the Great Masurian Lakes to the Baltic Sea. Construction of the Masurian Canal eventually began in 1911 but was interrupted by war and political turmoil in Germany—until the war put an end to the project, seemingly for good. Today, the canal’s partially completed locks are scattered across northern Poland and Russia’s Kaliningrad……

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Driving into Baxter State Park, visitors may notice a huge colorful boulder on the side of the road. The rock is painted with a classic outdoor scene depicting streams, trees, wildlife, and the famous Katahdin peak rising in the background. The scene is emblazoned with a message that admonishes viewers to “Keep Maine Beautiful.” This is, of course, applicable to most forms of environmental destruction. The message can also be interpreted as a response to the vandalism the rock……

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The Caldwell-Lake George Library collection dates back to the 1880s when local resident DeWitt Clinton Hay died. Hay bequeathed his extensive personal library and artifact collection to the town to be consolidated into a free library. The library was constructed in 1906. The original librarian, Mary Hubbell, served the community at the library until 1958. There have only been five librarians at Caldwell over the course of its storied history. Among Hay’s collection were several old tomes, some of……

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This story was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. Creeks, rivers, and lakes that are fed by melting snow across the American West are already running low as of mid-July 2021, much to the worry of farmers, biologists, and snow hydrologists like me. This is not surprising in California, where snow levels over the previous winter were well below normal. But it is also true across Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, which……

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Beneath the northern end of London’s famous Tower Bridge is a Victorian reminder of the River Thames’ gruesome history. On the eastern side of the bridge, visitors will find an alcove overlooking the dark waters of the river.  This hollow stands out when compared to its neighboring tunnels, with its glossy white tiles as opposed to dark stone cobbles. Known romantically as Dead Man’s Hole, the alcove served as an architectural net to catch the dead bodies that were carried……

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In 1955, a pair of researchers from the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. named Bernard Burke and Kenneth Franklin were working in a relatively new area of astronomy when they made an unexpected discovery. Researchers had already discovered several sources of radio waves in the sky, and the two were using a sophisticated antenna called the Mills Cross Array to build upon existing knowledge. The Mills Cross Array was developed by Australian radio astronomer B.Y. Mills and Martin Ryle……

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