In the rural Indian province of Bihar, Husk Power Systems is converting leftover rice husks into biofuel. Now they're building mini-power plants around the country, and expanding into Tanzania.

Many doctors embraced anesthesia, but critics in the medical community protested its use, giving rise to what's known as the “ether controversy.”

In a world full of wild insect defenses, bombardier beetles stand out for the violent chemical reaction they employ to deter enemies.

It’s not easy to measure a mountain. Mount Everest's height has been known since the middle of the nineteenth century, but how did they figure it out with no altimeters or GPS?

When it came time to describe what they saw under microscopes, Victorians couldn’t help but perceive a real-life fairyland.

What would happen if the Earth's magnetic poles flipped? Earth’s magnetic poles have a long history of switching from North to South and back again. 

Would today's online, social media-based friendships look familiar to the letter-writing friends of earlier centuries, when epistolary friendships were also common?

Researchers in England think connecting British National Parks to the “Internet of Things” could help better protect the national treasures at lower costs with improved experience for nature-lovers.

Gambling is one of humankind’s oldest activities. Elaborate technologies and customs have emerged around games of chance. Dice in particular have drawn attention from scholars.

Recently, two baby monkeys were cloned—the first time primates have been successfully duplicated. Why are we so afraid of human cloning?