history
-
The First Mercedes Hit The Road 120 Years Ago
On November 22, 1900, entrepreneur Emil Jellinek took his specially-crafted Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft machine out for a test drive. It was lighter, sleeker, and faster than anything the company had made before, and to honour the occasion, the car was named Mercedes after Jellinek’s daughter.
-
Turbulent Environment Set the Stage for Leaps in Human Evolution 320,000 Years Ago
People thrive all across the globe, at every temperature, altitude and landscape. How did human beings become so successful at adapting to whatever environment we wind up in? Human origins researchers like me are interested in how this quintessential human trait, adaptability, evolved. At a site in Kenya, my colleagues and I have been working…
-
A ‘Climate Anomaly’ Worsened World War I and the 1918 Flu Pandemic, New Research Suggests
A once-in-a-century “climate anomaly” exacerbated the awful conditions along the Western Front in Europe during the First World War, according to new research. This unusual weather may have also amplified — and possibly even initiated — the catastrophic 1918-19 flu pandemic, exposing an underappreciated threat posed by climate change.
-
Excavating Hidden and Forgotten Pasts With Sound
For people and communities whose pasts have been erased or denied historical documentation, sound presents a rich potential for rediscovering them. Sound has been used effectively in this regard for various experiences of the second world war. For example, in 1992, the Polish theatre company, Teatr NN, sought to resurrect the Jewish district of the…