A wall of water surges up to the left, arches over, and cascades to the right of you. Following closely behind, a collapsing vortex of white water reminds you of the urgency with which you should travel. Yet, time seems to slow. Ecstasy arises within you. You savor this dream-like experience, if only for a moment, as the water keeps crashing down and forces you back to reality.
A rainbow is one of my favorite things! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone look at one and not smile. It’s almost as instinctive of a reflex as shutting one's eyes when one sneezes. But besides the fact that it figures among my favorites for the happiness that it brings to those around me, there is another reason—albeit related to the first—for my fascination of this resplendent creation of God: A rainbow is a perfect representation of beauty in the right balance. And why is that fascinating? It’s because different colors have been proven to have a wide range...
Read MoreTour de France cyclists are some of the fittest athletes on Earth. Many have heart muscle that is 40 percent bigger than the average heart. The pros spend about 25 hours per week riding to train for the big race, and during the race, they can be on their bikes for up to six hours per day! But did you know there are members of the animal kingdom that put these super-athletes to shame? One of the most impressive weighs no more than 20 ounces! In 2007, biologist Robert Gill and his team set out to study this creature—the bar-tailed...
Read MoreHave you ever wondered how a small seed can grow over time and blossom into a flower, or even become a big tree? The growth process of a seed is not as simple as it looks, and the chances of a seed growing depend on the environment and weather. The germination process involves air, water and light. These elements all work together to activate certain enzymes in the seed that help it grow. Here is a simple illustration explaining how these elements help kick off the germination process:
The image to the right shows the relative size of a number of stars, including our very own sun. You'll have to click on the image for the full-size image (warning: huge image) to actually see the sun, though: it's on the far, far left, represented by only one pixel. Compared to many other stars, ours is tiny indeed. Here's what Mr. Armstrong wrote about that: Did you ever wonder about the countless millions of shining stars you have seen on an otherwise black, cloudless night? Sometimes they appear like a stupendous skyrocket which has just burst out into a glittering cluster. Many of...
Read MoreAlmost everyone is repulsed at the sight of a black, hairy spider on the wall. Our natural inclination is to shudder and want to kill spiders. Why do people hate spiders so much? If we can overcome the initial disgust, we will discover that spiders are some of the most talented creatures and most creative hunters in the world! We all know that spiders use webs to catch their prey, but that is not the only way they hunt. Although all spiders produce silk, they don’t all use it to make the traditional web to catch bugs. Spiders actually hunt in a...
Read MoreThe late 18th century would have been an exciting time to be an English naturalist. As the British Empire expanded, new cultures were being discovered, new lands were being settled, and amazing new creatures were being sent to England for examination. One of these new creatures, however, was so astounding, so paradoxical, that the naturalist who first examined it literally did not believe his eyes. When Captain John Hunter of Australia sent a specimen of the newly discovered duck-billed platypus to naturalist George Shaw, the keeper of the Department of Natural History at the British Museum, Shaw’s first reaction was to...
Read MoreIn California's Death Valley National Park, between the Cottonwood Mountains and the Last Chance Range, lies the Racetrack Playa, home to one of the world's most indescribable phenomena: rocks that move by themselves! All over the 3¼-square-mile Racetrack Playa (a flat bottom of a desert basin that occasionally becomes a shallow lake) are rocks with trails behind them. The rocks come from the north end of the playa, where rocks from a formation called the grandstands break off, falling to the ground below. Though not boulders, some rocks weigh up to 705 pounds (320 kilograms). Multiple experiments have been conducted...
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