When luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the shore of Italy's Tuscan Archipelago and collapsed on its side on January 13th, 2012, salvage engineers knew that they had a nightmare on their hands because a rescue operation of a ship this size, had never been done before. To make matters worse, the liner lay right in the midst of the Pelagos Sanctuary, an environmentally protected area of the Mediterranean, which meant that even a small misstep could turn into a disaster....

When the Los Angeles branch of Bonhams Auctioneers placed a rare $4USD gold coin up for bidding they knew they had something special. However even the experts were stunned when on September 23rd, 2013, instead of the expected $1.5 million USD, the coin fetched $2.75 million USD, placing it amongst the 10 most valuable US coins sold at an auction....

Given the advances in technology and learning methodologies, it is a natural assumption that modern-day US students have it harder than those that were educated in 1912. However, the recent discovery of an eighth grade test paper set by educators at Kentucky's Bullitt County School District a century ago, seems to indicate that things were not as easy as one would have thought!...

Living in an era when airplanes can run on autopilot with no humans at helm, it is hard to imagine that there was once a time not too long ago, when pilots in the USA had to navigate their way across cities using rudimentary aviation maps and . . . ginormous arrows!...

Long before there was English, German, Hindi, Spanish, French and the myriad of other languages that we speak today, there was Proto-Indo European or what linguists affectionately call PIE. Believed to have been spoken sometime between 4,500 and 3,700 B.C. by our ancestors in Europe and Asia, it is the most researched of all ancient languages simply, because it is believed to be the root of many of the modern ones....

The fact that kids seem to have an inordinate amount of energy is indisputable. What if this energy could somehow be harnessed and turned into electricity? That was a question that Ben Markham, a retired Vice President of Engineering at ExxonMobil asked himself a few years ago. The result? Empower Playgrounds Inc., non-profit company that has transformed the lives of thousands of young kids in Ghana with a simple yet brilliant idea!...

If you have been paying any attention to the news for the past few weeks, you may have heard about the possibility of the US government 'shutting down.' At 12:01 am on October 1st, that possibility became a reality. So what led to this momentous event and how will it affect your day-to-day life? Read on . . ....

Just a few weeks ago there was a major debate going on between world leaders about what the best course of action was to prevent another incident of the chemical attack like the one the innocent residents of Syria were subjected to, on August 21st, 2013....

They say that when it rains, it pours - This is something Colorado residents can relate to quite literally, given the recent torrential rains that began with just an inch in Boulder on September 1st and then quickly escalated to a record 9.08 inches on September 12th, nearly double the city's previous one-day record and about half of what it gets annually!...

Earlier this year, a simple act of honesty by a homeless man named , paid back in spades not just financially, but also, emotionally because it led to him reuniting with his long-lost older brother. Now a comparable act by a man in Boston seems to be reaping similar rewards, proving beyond doubt, that honesty is definitely the best policy!...

After being dismissed as a fake and banished to an attic for over a century, a painting created by the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, is finally getting the respect it deserves and being hailed as one of the greatest discoveries ever in the history of the Van Gogh Museum - The same experts that deemed it a 'fake', not too long ago....

Just like beauty, happiness is very subjective - What makes one person happy does not necessarily work for another. Yet there are various agencies that attempt to gauge the happiness of entire nations using disparate criteria. The most recent 'World Happiness Report' was released by the United Nations on September 9th and without further ado, here are the results . . ....

If you are a space buff, visiting Mars is probably at the top of your list. It is therefore no wonder that when the Mars One Foundation announced that they were seeking four qualified applicants to send on an all expenses paid trip to the Red Planet, over 200,000 people from 140 countries expressed their interest. The only catch? It will be a one-way trip because their mission will be to establish the first human settlement on Mars!...

On Wednesday, September 11th, Americans and people all around the world will commemorate the 2,977 innocent lives that were lost in what will go down in history, as one of the most daring and unusual terrorist attacks ever. The tragedy not only changed the lives of the people directly affected by the attacks but also that of future, yet-to-be born generations....

Advances in robotics have impacted almost every aspect of science - From building new liver tissues to making more advanced remote controlled helicopters. Now, these futuristic robots are even providing a window to our past, by aiding in the discovery of World War II airplanes along with remains to their occupants, the brave soldiers that fought so valiantly for their countries....

If you have been listening to the news lately chances are you have heard about the escalating tension in Syria and the heated debate between nations about whether it may be time for other countries to intervene and help the rebels. So what exactly is the crisis that has the entire world up in arms and how did it get to this stage? Read on . . ....

Ever since JK Rowling planted the 'invisibility cloak' seed, scientists all over the world have been rushing to be the first ones to make it a reality. Now there seems to be a winner - A tiny square sticker called Kite Patch. The only catch? It makes humans invisible only to mosquitoes!...

During his short but effective life as preacher and civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. gave many speeches. However the one that seemed to resonate with the entire country, race notwithstanding, was the one he delivered fifty years ago on August 28th, 1963, whilst standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C....

An intricately carved globe pieced together from two bottom shells of ostrich eggs may have just taken over the title of the oldest depiction of the 'New World', from the copper etched Hunt-Lenox globe that lies in The New York Public Library. What is even more interesting is that ostrich globe which is believed to have been created between 1504-1506 used Leonardo Da Vinci's unique 'triangle' technique to transfer the 2-dimensional map drawing into a 3-dimensional sphere, leading Belgian cartographer Stefaan Missinne to speculate that it may be the work of a skilled artist from Da Vinci's Florence studio....

While scientists know that the first life found on Earth almost three billion years ago began with the simplest form, its origins still remains a mystery. Sure Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection presented in his 1859 book 'The Origin of Species' sounds plausible, but it still does not explain how that first living microorganism came into being. A team of scientists led by University of California Santa Cruz Professor Andrew Fisher believe that an unusual ecosystem located at the bottom of our oceans may provide some clues....

In summer of 2011, nine-year old Caine Monroy was twiddling his thumbs at his father's auto parts shop in Los Angeles, wondering what to do over the long summer break, when he suddenly hit upon a brilliant idea - Why not build a gaming arcade?...

People normally start to think about ticking things off their 'bucket list' i.e. list of things they wish to do before they die, as they get older and believe that time is running out. However, Nkaitole was recently able to experience every single thing he has ever wished for (so far), at the tender age of four....

On Monday, August 5th, reporters from some of the world's most prestigious newspapers gathered in Hammersmith, London and watched attentively as award-winning chef Richard McGeown carefully sautéed a beef patty in oil and butter, placed it on a plate beside a burger bun, lettuce and tomato, and served it with great flourish to Chicago-based food writer and journalist, Josh Schonwald and Austrian food researcher, Hanni Rutzler....

On July 23rd, a team of paleontologists comprising of experts from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History and students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, excavating in the Chihuahuan Desert in the Northeastern State of Coahuila, stumbled upon an exciting and rare discovery - An almost perfectly preserved tail of a dinosaur that inhabited the area, 72 million years ago....