This is what the ancient Greek stadium looks like before and after the excavations.

Thousands of people filled this stadium thousands of times over the centuries, and then it all just stopped and overgrown. You won’t even think at first glance that there is a whole stadium under the grass.

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That’s how an ancient Egyptian door lock works. Not so different from a modern one, right? Pretty simple, but at the same time very thoughtful.

The general principle has not changed since that time. And I wonder if there were people who could easily pick such locks?

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Giraffes are just as astonishing on the inside as they are to look at. Standing up to 19 feet tall, they require enormously high blood pressure to pump blood up to the head, yet they suffer few, if any, of the consequences that people with high blood pressure would.

Giraffes have sky-high blood pressure because of their sky-high heads that, in adults, rise about six meters above the ground — a long, long way for a heart to pump blood against gravity. To have a blood pressure of 110/70 at the brain — about normal for a large mammal — giraffes need a blood pressure at the heart of about 220/180. It doesn’t faze the giraffes, but a pressure like that would cause all sorts of problems for people, from heart failure to kidney failure to swollen ankles and legs.

Giraffes have solved a problem with high blood pressure. Their solutions, only partly understood by scientists so far, involve pressurized organs, altered heart rhythms, blood storage — and the biological equivalent of support stockings.

@science

In ancient China, pillows were made from different materials. They took wood, bamboo and even jade, bronze and porcelain.

It was believed that a jade pillow makes a person smarter. Hard pillows were preferred precisely because of this belief. Although the Chinese knew how to make soft pillows, it was believed that they, on the contrary, steal energy while a person is sleeping.

On a picture you can see a Jin Dynasty ceramic pillow, beautiful but obviously uncomfortable.

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The portrait of George Washington on the one dollar bill is taken from the unfinished “Portrait from the Ateneum”. In this painting, Washington is 65 years old.
It can be seen that the artist did not finish the portrait, but it is not known exactly why.

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The Moon Will Turn Red Tonight in a Stunning 'Flower Eclipse'. Here's How to Watch

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Scientists finding a new geometric shape that explains and shows how our skin cells pack and fit together.

As the epithelium of our skin grows and curves, the cells must adjust and take on new shapes to pack using as little energy as possible. They took not just a random form, but the form of a scutoid.

Well, these are building blocks like in Minecraft, only for our skin.

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Scientists Just Measured a Mechanical Quantum System Without Destroying It

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Mind-Altering Parasite May Make Infected People More Attractive, Study Suggests

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A steel razor blade can get dull surprisingly quickly when cutting something as soft as hair, and now researchers have gotten their first up-close look at how a close shave actually damages an everyday disposable razor.
This leading-edge research, described in the journal Science, used a scanning electron microscope to peer at a razor as it sliced through strands of hair.

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NASA Announces InSight Lander on Mars May Only Have a Few Months Left

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The shell of a turtle is more than just a cover, it’s a vital part of the animal’s skeleton that protects its organs. And although pet turtles are usually safe from the dangers that might crack it, wild ones aren’t so lucky. Fires, and especially cars often damage them, causing serious consequences. However, not every injury they inflict is fatal. With proper care, cracked turtle shells can be fixed, and one wildlife organization has come up with a genius way to do so. Recently, Wildthunder Wildlife & Animal Rehabilitation & Sanctuary took to Facebook, asking for discarded bra fasteners: “We use them to mend our turtle shells!” they wrote.

Here is a hungry rotifer attacking and eating another protozoan unicellular organism.

Look how fast the first attack was. If anything, the video was filmed in real time, with a hundred times magnification.

@science