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What medieval people made of fossils before vertebrate paleontologyBook excerpt In this excerpt from "The Story of the Mammals in 25 Discoveries," author Donald R. Prothero looks at a time when the idea of extinction was blasphemous.
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'These were harder than any other blades, cut sharper and cost more'Book prize winner In this excerpt from "The Age of Alchemy," author Kit Chapman reveals how ancient Sri Lankans created steel of legends by harnessing monsoons.
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Why the tomb of the 'Disturber of the Universe' remains hidden after 800 yearsBook excerpt The enduring mystery of Genghis Khan's final resting place — and the extreme lengths his followers took to hide it.
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Was there a 'before' the Big Bang? Jim Al-Khalili on the mind-bogglingness of timeBook excerpt In this excerpt from "On Time: The Physics That Makes the Universe Tick," author and theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili examines the possibility of time starting before the Big Bang, with the cosmological theory of eternal inflation.
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How the grassroots climate movement took off in the USBook excerpt In this excerpt from "The Carbon Wave," author Leah Stokes explores the lead-up to that moment and the wave of environmental action that followed.
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'The greatest unknown was how much energy would be released by the weapon': How scientists prepared for the Trinity nuclear testBook excerpt In this excerpt from "Trinity: An Illustrated History of the World’s First Atomic Test," author Emily Seyl looks at the buildup to the 1945 test that changed history. She explores the huge effort to design experiments that would ultimately establish whether the gargantuan explosion in the middle of the desert was a success.
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'A fine line between reducing stigma and trivialising conditions': Social media, self-diagnosis and the glamorization of ADHDBook excerpt Social media, self-diagnosis and the glamorization of ADHD
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'No longer will anything seem impossible or marvellous': How an 'immoral, foul-mouthed and violent man' wrote the first eyewitness account of a total solar eclipse​​Book excerpt In this excerpt from the book "Solar Eclipses" by William Sheehan, we learn of how an ancient Greek poet, who wrote a series of scurrilous songs and deserted the field of battle, became a hero among eclipse-watchers today.
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'The apparent chaos of the Anthropocene is turbocharging evolution itself'Book excerpt In this excerpt from "Despite it All," author Fred Pearce explores the ways plants are adapting and evolving in the face of climate change — and how we need to recognize this reality and foster its potential boost to biodiversity, rather than holding steadfast to our notions of what types of nature should and shouldn't be allowed to thrive.
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