Archive · The East · Science
British researchers have compiled a database listing the knights who took part in the Crusades. Enthusiasts online then established their origins: it turned out that most of the first crusaders came from France. Even many of those who set out from England or southern Italy were natives of the Norman
Museums · Science · Paris · People
Georges Clemenceau's Toothbrush Kept Its Secrets for a Century. French museum curators never cease to astonish. This time with their scholarly labours. Having examined the toothbrush of the Prime Minister of France in 1906 to 1909 and again in 1917 to 1920, researchers have managed to reconstruct his
Observations · Science · Pop Culture · Humour
Everyone has suddenly stopped talking about it, and yet it is right on the approach to our planet
Archaeology · In the Press · London · Science
Beneath the Palace of Westminster, flint tools of the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, about 6,000 years old, have been found, together with artefacts dating from the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages In Shaanxi Province in China, a network of 573 ancient stone fortifications has been found, the earliest
NB! · Art · Science · People
NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Art · Science
It turns out that the famous lions over the main gate of the Mycenaean citadel, dated to the mid-13th century BC, were in fact looking backwards, not at one another. It is also thought that the lions' heads, which have not survived, were made of a different material,
Observations · Science · Nature
Sebastian Voltmer has published a stunning image of the "comet" 3I/ATLAS taken on 1 December. Well-informed viewers are asking how to explain the green anti-tail, which moves against the solar wind, and the opposite blue tail, which moves with it. I, for my part, simply
Archaeology · Science · Humour
A galleon filled to the brim with gold has been found in the Caribbean, yet the scientists somehow report that all they have managed to raise from the treasure ship is a piece of rope, some broken cups, three coins and a cannon. Curious, is it not? In the Caribbean
Art · Science · Paris
It is not every day that experts discover a new masterpiece of the seventeenth century. A painting created by Rubens around 1614–1615 has been found among the belongings of the late owner of a Parisian town house. In 400 years the picture has survived in excellent condition. After X-
Archive · Science · People · Pop Culture
On 1 April 1976 Wayne drew up the partnership agreement for the Apple Computer Company, typing it out on his own IBM typewriter. He received a 10 per cent stake in the start-up, but the trio did not last long: twelve days later, fearing financial liability, Wayne withdrew from
Archive · Books · Science
The Medieval Dog. Strange as it may seem, the symbol @, which Russians call a "dog", appeared long before the internet: it was invented back in the Middle Ages. To economise precious parchment and the copyists' time, monks replaced the frequently occurring Latin preposition "ad" with
Archive · Moscow · Science · Society
Muscovites observe the Great Solar Eclipse of 19 June 1936: a solar eclipse on the eve of the repressions. Photographs by Yefrem Yefremov. Against the purplish-grey sky there flared a silken, silvery corona, of the form typical of the epoch of solar maximum. The absolutely black disc of the