The Real Reason for the Season: The Science behind the Holidays Source Material
- Christmas and the StarsMaria Mitchell Observatory; provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System
- Climate Change Across Seasons Experiment (CCASE): A new method for simulating future climate in seasonally snow-covered ecosystemsHow might climate change affect the seasons?
- The Origins of the Christmas Date: Some Recent Trends in Historical ResearchThe article reviews recent and current developments in research on the origins of
Christmas, which has traditionally crystallized around two competing approaches,
known as the "History of Religions Theory" and the "Calculation Theory." This essay
shall look at the history of these approaches and discuss their rationale and
limitations, before turning to the challenges that have been brought against them by
the recent work of Steven Hijmans and Hans Förster. It will be argued that their
studies reveal the need for a more nuanced approach to the history of Christmas,
which retains the aspect of inter-religious influence, but also pays some overdue
attention to the importance of chronological thought in early Christian scholarship. - An Ancient Unfair Game"The game of dreydel has been played by Jews for many years on the festival of Chanukah. (Some historians date it back about 2000 years and some date it from the early middle ages.) What we have discovered is that, surprisingly, such an ancient game is also an unfair game ..."
- Atomic-scale tuning of self-assembled ZnO microscopic patterns: from dendritic fractals to compact islandHow nature uses water molecules to create fascinating patterns
ranging from snowflakes to ice cubes has intrigued mankind for
centuries. Here we use ZnO to mimic nature’s versatility in creating
microscopic patterns with tunable morphology.
Fractal Geometry of Nature by ISBN: 0716711869Publication Date: 1982-08-15Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, and lightening does not travel in a straight line. The complexity of nature's shapes differs in kind, not merely degree, from that of the shapes of ordinary geometry, the geometry of fractal shapes. Now that the field has expanded greatly with many active researchers, Mandelbrot presents the definitive overview of the origins of his ideas and their new applications.The Fractal Geometry of Nature is based on his highly acclaimed earlier work, but has much broader and deeper coverage and more extensive illustrations.
Early Man and the Cosmos by ISBN: 9780802707451Publication Date: 1984-04-01
- SANTA'S REINDEERS ARE PROBABLY FEMALEYou know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen; Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen? They're Santa's reindeers, by the way. And asnew research suggests, they're probably female.
Dr. Kirtly Parker Jones (https://medicine.utah.edu/faculty/mddetail.php?facultyID=u0031449)
talks about the fun research out of Texas A&M University and why it matters to women's health. - Seeing the Unseen of the Combination of Two Natural Resins, Frankincense and Myrrh: Changes in Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological ActivitiesFor the treatment of diseases, especially chronic diseases, traditional natural drugs have
more e ective therapeutic advantages because of their multi-target and multi-channel characteristics.
Among many traditional natural medicines, resins frankincense and myrrh have been proven to be
e ective in the treatment of inflammation and cancer. In the West, frankincense and myrrh have
been used as incense in religious and cultural ceremonies since ancient times ...