Nature Hub

 From - History Today,   By -  Mathew Lyons ,  Edited by- Vinuri Randula Silva, Dorothy Garrod and her assistants, London, 1931 © Topfoto. The pioneering archaeologist Dorothy Garrod was elected to the Disney Chair of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge on 6 May 1939. She was the first woman to be a professor either there or at Oxford; women were still not admitted to full degrees at Cambridge, despite having been educated there since 1869. Her election brought matters to a head: women won full equality in 1948. Garrod was also the first prehistorian – she specialised in the paleolithic era – to hold the chair at a time when archaeology was struggling to establish itself as an academic discipline; many still thought it little more than a hobby. Yet within a decade, Garrod, who disliked academic politics, had also won full degree status for archaeology at the university. Born in 1892 into an intellectual family – her father was Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford – Garrod disc

From Knowable Magazine, By  Lindzi Wessel , Edited by - Amal Udawatta,                   The Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, has become an unexpected source of microbes that                                                                                         thrive in extreme environments. ( CREDIT: PHOTO BY JARED VERDI                                                                                       ON  UNSPLASH Benito Gómez-Silva is surrounded by nothing. For as far as the eye can see, no plants dot the landscape; no animals amble across the salt-crusted soil that stretches out to the base of distant mountains. Besides some weak wisps of clouds inching slowly past a blazing sun, nothing moves here. The scenery consists exclusively of dirt and rocks. It’s easy to imagine why Charles Darwin, peering across a nearby expanse of emptiness 187 years ago, proclaimed this region — the Atacama Desert in northern Chile — a place “where nothing can exist.” Indeed, thou

  Mathew Lyons  | Published in  History Tod ay Edited by  - Vinuri Randhula Silva John Payne Collier died on 17 September 1883, after a lifetime of creating deliberate fictions, falsehoods and forgeries. ‘An inquiry into the genuineness of the manuscript corrections in Mr. J. Payne Collier’s annotated Shakspere, folio, 1632: and of certain Shaksperian documents likewise published by Mr. Collier’, by N.E.S.A. Hamilton, 1860. Special Collections, University of Delaware Library.  John Payne Collier: three words sure to chill the heart of any early modern English literary scholar. Why? Because Collier was that most interesting of phenomena: a fine scholar who was also a first-class fraud.  Aside from including deliberate fictions and falsehoods in printed records of archival material, he also introduced forgeries into the archives themselves, faking official documents, adding information to letters and diaries, falsifying registers and inventories and more. While connoisseurs of Collier’s

  From - Smithsonian Magazine, By -  Grant Wong Historian, University of South Carolina, Edited by - Vinuri Randhula  Silva, “Blonde,” a heavily fictionalized film by Andrew Dominik, explores the star’s life and legend in a narrative that’s equal parts glamorous and disturbing Marilyn Monroe’s  final interview  is a heartbreaker. Published in  Life  magazine on August 3, 1962—just a day before the  actress died  of a barbiturate overdose at age 36—it found Monroe reflecting on her celebrity status, alternatively thoughtful, frank and witty. “When you’re famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way,” she observed. “It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who is she—who is she, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe?” That same question—who was the real Monroe?—has sparked debate among  cinema scholars ,  cultural critics ,  historians ,  novelists ,  filmmakers  and the  general public  for decades. Was “Marilyn,” the personality and persona

  F rom - History today, By  -  Philippa Joseph  , Edited by - Amal Udawatta, Representation of the Prophet Zachariah’s vision of a menorah between two olive trees, by Joseph Ha-Zarefati in the Cervera Bible, c.1300. Bridgeman Images. The seven-branched menorah, an instantly recognisable symbol of Judaism, is much older than the Star of David. It has been in continuous use for longer than any other religious symbol in the western world; Rabbinic teaching dates it to the lifetime of the prophet Moses (1391-1271 BC). We first read about the menorah – meaning ‘candelabrum’ – in Exodus, the second book of the Torah, when it is revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Moses is given instructions as to its form, the precise nature of which has caused debate ever since. A menorah should be a hammered work of pure gold and have a central shaft with three branches sprouting from either side. At the top of each branch and central shaft should be a cup shaped like an almond. These cups are to contain pu

 From - History Today, Edited by  -Vinuri Randhula Silva, Charles Dimont traces the background and development of the song. As reproduced in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1745. Wiki Commons. The origins of “God Save the Queen” are lost in obscurity, but there is no doubt whatever that the words and the tune, as we know them today, suddenly became widely popular in September, 1745. In that month, demonstrations of loyalty to the reigning house were in special demand. Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, had routed Cope at Prestonpans, and was about to invade England; London was preparing to defend itself and its Hanoverian rulers. An example of popular feeling was given on September 28th when the entire male caste of Drury Lane theatre announced their intention of forming a special unit of the Volunteer Defence Force. That evening they gave a performance of Jonson’s  The Alchemist . At its conclusion there was an additional item. Three of the leading singers of the day—Mrs. Cibber, Bear