The London Bridge has been an iconic structure in film, literature, and nursery rhyme, but the bridge’s story is more complicated than we often realize. There is no singular London bridge in history, but rather a series of different constructions that date back to the Roman occupation, before the city itself was even recognized. The original London Bridge was not built in London, but rather London was built around the bridge. When the Romans were occupying Britain, Londinium was settled around a key crossing point of the Thames.  These bridges were modest wooden assemblages that facilitat ..read more

So much of what we know about distant space is a mystery, but even our closest cosmic neighbor remains an enigma.  The question of the Moon’s formation is one that still lacks a satisfying answer. The most commonly accepted model, the Theia-impact hypothesis, can account for many of the questions surrounding Earth’s satellite, but it has its own limits, and is only the lastest in a long line of theories. This question of how the Moon came about is one older than the scientific field that hopes to answer it, a question that goes beyond the origins of our satellite into the formation of the ..read more

Scattered among the Sahara’s billowing dunes, hidden amongst the grains of sand, lie small glassy formations called Libyan Desert glass. Known since antiquity, the ancient Egyptians called these formations the Rock of God. Today we know this material is not exactly divine, but their exact origins remain a mystery. Given the glass’ chemical composition, a meteor origin is most likely, but whether they formed from direct impact or an airburst is still being studied. Given the questions around its origins, Libyan Desert glass is difficult to classify. The material is usually accepted as a tektite ..read more

By the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, dinosaur populations stagnated, struggling under the climate change wrought by the volcanic Deccan Traps. But among the clade’s many evolutionary branches, there were some that continued to strive. The duck-billed Hadrosaurs had a worldwide distribution, extending into desert wastes and freezing arctic environments. Wherever they went, they relied on an efficient grazing style, using their many teeth to process all kinds of plant material. With these attributes, Hadrosaurs staked a claim to the Late Cretaceous, a fascinating bookend to the end of the dinosau ..read more

280 million years ago, the Dimetrodon roamed the Earth, an apex predator at the top of the Permian Period’s food chain. With its distinctly reptilian appearance, Dimetrodon is often mistaken for a dinosaur, but they were actually synapsids. This clade of amniotes was a forerunner to today’s mammals, but there’s not much of a family resemblance. With its complex and deadly teeth and striking but still mysterious neural spines, these prehistoric carnivores occupy a special place in Earth’s history, anticipating many of the evolutionary traits used by both the dinosaurs and mammals. The Dimetrodo ..read more

With a height of 3,776 meters (12,385 ft), Mount Fuji is the highest mountain across the Japanese archipelago. Its size is the result of volcanic forces that have melded three volcanoes into one: Komitake, Ko-Fuji, and the current Shin-Fuji. Over the course of the last several hundred thousand years, each volcano has formed out of the remains of the last with Shin-Fuji becoming active roughly 10,000 years ago. But this mountain, for all its geologic enormity, is far more than a work of nature—the mountain is revered across Japan as a site of religious pilgrimage and a calling card of the natio ..read more

The connection between Bram Stoker’s vampire Count Dracula and the historical Vlad Dracula is often taken as a given, but two’s association is more complicated. In researching his novel, Stoker drew from An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia but the work has little information on Vlad Dracula and makes no mention of his use of impalement. Vlad Dracula is absent from Stoker’s notes but his novel’s character describes “one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk” makes the connection clear enough. Understanding the real Vlad Dracula’s history is fu ..read more

Inhospitable and inescapable, the Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island housed some of the most notorious criminals of the 20th century, but the island’s history extends far beyond its three decades as “The Rock.” Alcatraz has long been the site of flashpoints in the history of the United States. Named by Spanish colonizers who took the island from native tribes, the island was later used as a Civil War prison camp before its tenure as a civilian prison. After its closing, the island was reclaimed by native tribes during the Occupation of Alcatraz. The island’s history is rich, a 22-acre sla ..read more

Today, the ancient Romans are remembered for their military tactics and sprawling empire, but they were not always the powerful force we know them as. Roman military tactics were built around spears, swords, and shields, which left them with a deadly weakness: the bow. The Romans would not fully realize the power of archery on the battlefield until the end of the Republic period, the weapon’s use paralleling the rise of the Empire and its eventual collapse. The Meditterean world was conquered under a hail of Roman arrows, but its capital city would ultimately fall in much the same manner. Arch ..read more

In 1800, when only the first of its wings had been completed, the United States Capitol held its first meeting of Congress, a new beginning for the young country. Since then, through renovations, destructions, expansions, and more, the building has served as the legislative heart of the United States. The building parallels the rocky beginnings of the young country, the Capitol’s sprawling and laborious construction nonetheless giving way to the seat of government that runs the country today. The reasons to build the Capitol were twofold. It would, of course, serve as a symbol of the triumph o ..read more