Author: Nathan Rutherford

Many cultures imagined the world not as a sphere or flat disc, but as a series of discs stacked atop each other. I provide some examples and explore what this could mean.

Metamorphosis is a process some animals undergo to turn into adults. Some of the most dramatic examples come from marine invertebrates.

The Instructions of Shuruppak is the world’s oldest known piece of literature. Yet, it refers to even more ancient times in the distant past.

The short story “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” by Jorge Luis Borges describes two mysterious encyclopedias that describe a location that does not exist. This reminded me of several real-world manuscripts written in unknown imaginary languages and have proven vexing to many scholars.

Humans need Vitamin C to survive and without it will suffer from scurvy. Interestingly, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and most mammals can all make their own vitamin C in a series of chemical reactions.