Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature
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cave-painting
Photo: “Tree of Life,” a cave painting from Borneo, Indonesia, by Lhfage at English Wikipedia [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Childhood in the Ice Age — What Was It Like?

Having reached a point now known as the “Sala dei Misteri,” they left signatures of their time there. Read More ›
1665_Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring
Image credit: Johannes Vermeer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Depths of Design: Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence

The effort to mirror objects in the world in our artistic creations reaches back into prehistory. Read More ›
capuchin monkey
Photo credit: Tiago Falótico, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Monkeys, Not Humans, Likely Made Ancient Brazilian Tools

The stone objects, dated from 50,000 years ago, look like the ones made by capuchin monkeys today. Read More ›
20-Mule-Team-2019_NPS_Patrick-Taylor-14
Photo credit: NPS, Patrick Taylor.

Prior Fitness for Life: The Problem of Boron

The atomic element boron is essential for life, but how do you get it from stars to plants and animals? Read More ›
push-ups

What if Our Muscles Were Less Powerful?

As every medical student comes to learn when first dissecting the human body at medical school, our limbs are almost entirely composed of muscles. Read More ›
glass-making
glass-making
Photo: Glass-making, by Hessam / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

How Man Became the Fire-Maker

Being terrestrial is one obvious requirement. No fully aquatic species could master fire and thus develop metallurgy. Read More ›
charcoal
Photo credit: Patrick Selin, via Unsplash.

The Role of Lignin for Fire, Explained

Without lignin, there would be no woody plants, no wood, no coal, no charcoal, no fire, no pottery, and certainly no iron or metallurgy. Read More ›
Prometheus-Carrying-Fire
Image: Prometheus Carrying Fire, by Jan Caussiers, via Wikimedia Commons.

Needed for Fire: All the Right Fuel

There is another aspect of the Earth’s environment that is absolutely crucial in allowing the utilization of fire for metal-based technologies. Read More ›
2006-07-18 - United States - New York - Long Island - North Fork - Thunderstorm - Lightning

The Path to Technology Was Built into Nature

All these elements of fitness in nature for the development of technology, crucial to mankind’s rise to civilization, long preceded man’s arrival on Earth. Read More ›
campfire
campfire
Photo credit: Manuel Meurisse, via Unsplash.

Combustion Is Anything but Ordinary

The combustion of wood or coal may seem so familiar as to be unworthy of any comment. Read More ›

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