أحدث محتوى تعليمي

Turkish technology company Letvision recently revealed a working prototype of a real-life transformer that will make all Autobot and Decepticon fans swoon! The company says the idea to build “Letrons” came about during a brainstorming session to create a unique and futuristic project. It took the team of twelve engineers and four supporting technicians, eight months to build the first prototype, unveiled in late September....

Five years ago, Finland resident Rami Adham embarked on a mission to help the Syrian refugees in his former hometown of Aleppo. The father of six used all his savings to buy food and medicine. As he was leaving for Syria, his three-year-old daughter, Yasmin, offered to donate her toys, in exchange for a new Barbie doll. A deal was made, and the aid worker added 25 teddy bears and 36 Barbie dolls to his already heavy load....

The great frigatebird, a species of seabird found across the world’s tropical seas, has a 7 foot wingspan — the largest of any bird species its size. Past research had indicated that these adept pilots could stay aloft as long as a week at a time. It turns out, that the experts and even Christopher Columbus, who noticed the birds on his 1492 voyage to the Americas — and remarked “does not alight on the sea nor depart from land 20 leagues (70 miles)” — had vastly underestimated the magnificent bird’s flying prowess and smarts!...

Here is some exciting news for those living in the Western Hemisphere — today, September 30, marks the emergence of the black moon. While that may sound sinister and is even dubbed apocalyptic by some; it is just the moniker given to the second new moon in a month. And like all new moons, this one too will be invisible to the naked eye....

September is usually a month when the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) are at their lowest levels in the northern hemisphere. That’s because plants suck up a lot of the gas as they grow during the summer. But this year, the level of the greenhouse gas has remained stubbornly above the symbolic “red line” of 400 parts per million. This has caused scientists to predict that CO2 levels will not return to environment-friendly levels "ever again for the indefinite future.”...

As predicted, the first debate between US presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, that took place at New York’s Hofstra University on September 26, drew a record audience. According to initial estimates, between 70 – 80 million people tuned in to watch the first face-off between the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. The last time a US presidential debate generated this much interest was in 1980, when incumbent president Jimmy Carter was pitted against former California governor Ronald Reagan....

If you think winter luge, where athletes lying on tiny sleds hurtle down slippery icy tracks is dangerous, you probably have never seen the “summer” version of the sport. Street luge is similar to its winter counterpart, except for one thing – competitors do not have the safety of a chute. Instead, they lay on their sleds and zip down paved streets to what seems like certain death!...

Like most bees, the ground nesting Anthophora squammulosa, that are native to parts of North and Central America, are a solitary species. The females lay their eggs in little underground nests and then head out to search for nectar to feed their developing larvae. This process usually takes place in environments with plenty of flora, to ensure a reliable supply of food....

In 1974, American stuntman Evel Knievel attempted to cross Idaho’s Snake River Canyon aboard a steam-powered rocket. Unfortunately, a parachute deployed prematurely and caused the rocket and its occupant to drift to the canyon’s bottom. While Knievel emerged relatively unscathed from the incident, he never got a chance to attempt the stunt again....

On September 10, 2016, a meteorite weighing more than 30-tons (68,000 pounds) was unearthed in Argentina’s Campo del Cielo (Spanish for “Field of Heaven”) region. The space rock that is amongst the largest intact meteorites discovered thus far, is believed to be part of a massive meteor that disintegrated as it entered Earth's atmosphere approximately 4,000 — 6,000 years ago....

Three-year-old Bailey suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a medical condition that affects the spinal cord’s motor nerve cells. As a result, she is unable to sit, stand, crawl, or walk on her own. She also can’t swallow food efficiently or breathe without the help of a machine. But thanks to Surf Dog Ricochet (and some human volunteers), Bailey and a few other kids suffering from SMA recently did what most children their age only dream of — go surfing!...

Monday, August 8, was Earth Overshoot Day. Calculated annually by the environmental advocacy group, Global Footprint Network, it is the day when humanity has consumed all the natural resources — produce, meat, fish, water, and wood — that our planet can regenerate in a single year. This means that for the rest of 2016, we will be using natural resources that are impossible to replace....

First, there was KBG84, Japan’s hottest “girl” band whose 33 members have an average age of 84. And now, Japan Pom Pom, a unique cheerleading troupe made up of 28 sprightly grandmothers, whose ages range from 55 to the late 80s....

When it comes to currency innovation, very few nations can outdo Australia. In 1988, it became the first country in the world to replace paper money with polymer banknotes. Now, the officials have done it again with a five-dollar bill that is not just cool to look at, but also so technologically advanced, that many experts are dubbing it the money of the future!...

Water, or rather the lack of it, is one of the most pressing issues of our times. Unprecedented droughts and growing populations have left many countries struggling to keep up with demand. Given that agriculture is the largest single user of freshwater, providing farmers with new conservation techniques would go a long way in alleviating our water woes. It turns out that a “miracle” powder has been helping drought-stricken Mexican farmers do exactly that for over a decade!...

Any member of the five species of the Prasinohaema (Greek: “green blood”) skinks that that live on the island of New Guinea in the South West Pacific, would have been a shoo-in for J.K. Rowling’s wildly imaginative Harry Potter book series. That’s because besides being the only known land vertebrates to have “vivid lime green” blood, the reptiles also sport green bones, green muscles, and even a green tongue!...

In July 2016, much to the dismay of environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) — the federal government body in charge of the nation's waterways — granted the final permits to allow construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). When completed, the 1,172-mile-long, $3.8 billion USD pipeline that snakes through four states will be able to transport up to 500,000 barrels of crude oil from the Bakken Formation area of North Dakota to refineries in Illinois, daily. The builder, Dakota Access, LLC, a subsidiary of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, asserts that the underground pipeline is a more direct, cost-effective, safer, and environmentally responsible way to transport crude oil....

The Pallas’s cat is a small-sized wild cat species that lives in the remote steppes and mountains of Central Asia. Excessive hunting of the animals that are coveted for their thick, lush, fur as well as the loss of habitat has drastically reduced their numbers in the wild. As a result, the beautiful animals have been on IUCN’s near threatened list of species since 2002. It is, therefore, no wonder that the recent sighting of the elusive cats in the mountains of Mongolia is causing such joy among conservationists and cat lovers worldwide....

Shortly before the school year ended in June, 1,700 American kids got to do what most students can only dream of — play video games in class. No, the 100 educators that allowed this were not slacking off. They were helping Microsoft beta test a new Minecraft Education Edition, which the company plans to offer to schools across the globe within the next few weeks....

At the end of the spring semester in May, students taking Georgia Tech’s online Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence course received some stunning news. Jill Watson, one of the nine teaching assistants (TA’s) that had helped them navigate the challenging course for the past five months was not a “she,” but an “it” — an intelligent robot to be precise!...

It is said that the classics never die. Be it movies, books, or in this case, the ghost-gobbling game, Pac-Man. In its 36-year existence, the Pac-Man has undergone numerous remakes and reboots. But this time, the game made a comeback on an entirely new, microscopic scale, to accommodate the equally tiny “Pac-Man” and “Ghosts.”...

In 1924, two years after he began excavating Egyptian King Tutankhamun’s (Tut) burial chamber, British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter finally discovered what he had been seeking: The young pharaoh’s well-preserved sarcophagus. In addition to the scores of precious jewels, amulets, and bracelets that had been buried alongside, Carter also unearthed two daggers wrapped around the boy king’s body. The other also featured a gold handle, but its blade appeared to be made from iron....

Sunday, September 11, 2016, marks the 15th anniversary of the most daring and deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. Planned and executed by Islamic extremist organization Al Qaeda, the unprovoked act of violence is what led to our ongoing "Global War On Terrorism” and changed life as we knew it, forever....

Earlier this year, a team of engineers led by China’s Song Youzhou suggested that a massive elevated bus that straddled above normal-sized vehicles was the key to easing the world’s traffic woes. Though the concept of the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) unveiled at the 19th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo on May 22 generated a lot of excitement, most people were skeptical that it would ever become a reality. But they were wrong....