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Behind The News / Science

Ancient Babylonians Used Advanced Geometry

A cuneiform tablet from Babylonia dating between 400 and 50 BCE describes the motion of Jupiter by using geometric techniques thought to have been discovered 1,400 years later.

Behind The News / Technology

AI Masters Game Much More Complex Than Chess

An artificial intelligence program using neural networks has beaten a professional player of the board game go for the first time.

Behind The News / Health & Medicine

Zika Virus on the Move in the Americas

Experts with the World Health Organization have warned that Zika virus could infect as many as 4 million people in the Americas in 2016.

Behind The News / History

Gbagbo on Trial for Crimes Against Humanity

Former Ivoirian president Laurent Gbagbo’s trial at the ICC began on January 28, 2016.

Behind The News / History

Eichmann Papers Made Public

On January 27 the Israeli government released for the first time a collection of documents handwritten by Adolf Eichmann during his trial and imprisonment.

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History

German E. coli outbreak of 2011

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Bacterial disease outbreak that began in Germany in late April 2011 and that was caused by a previously rare strain of E. coli (Escherichia...

9 Love Stories with Tragic Endings

Interview with the Vampire (Bat)

Biography

Mohamed Nasheed

Sinan Hussain/AP

Journalist, activist, and politician who was elected president of the Maldives in 2008 but resigned from office in early 2012 in what he...

Ants: Fact or Fiction?

13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

10 Places to Visit in the Solar System

Mollusks: Fact or Fiction?

8 Hotly Disputed Borders of the World

Butterflies and Moths: Fact or Fiction

Animals

mandrill

Russ Kinne/Photo Researchers

Mandrillus sphinx colourful and primarily ground-dwelling monkey that inhabits the rainforests of equatorial Africa from the Sanaga River...

“How quickly passes away the glory of this world.”

Thomas À Kempis

Science

marine bioluminescence

Minden Pictures/Superstock

Heatless light generated chemically by marine organisms. Bioluminescence is exhibited by a wide variety of oceanic organisms, from bacteria to large squids...

The Scottish Highlands, where Gaelic customs and language survive, are one of Scotland's three topographic areas. They are bisected by the fault line of Glen Mor.

Thinkstock

The city of Rotorua, on New Zealand's North Island, is at the centre of a remarkable array of hot springs, boiling mud pools, and spouting geysers.

Thinkstock

The steep streets of cool, elegant San Francisco offer breathtaking views of one of the world’s greatest bays.

Getty Images

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11 Adorable Pocket-size Frogs

Cacti

Argentina’s Natural Beauty

Penguins

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