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Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. As the 15th century ended, Europeans were still mostly in the dark about the Eastern world. Early travelers like Marco Polo had given the West tidbits of information, but these accounts were too highly colored and fragmentary to provide a true picture of Asia. The first really accurate and detailed reports came out in the 1500s from four remarkable travelers - Tomé Pires, Garcia de Orta, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, and Ralph Fitch....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Phoenician traders arrived on the North African coast around 900 B.C. and established Carthage (in present-day Tunisia) around 800 B.C. By the sixth century B.C., a Phoenician presence existed at Tipasa (east of Cherchell in Algeria). From their principal center of power at Carthage, the Carthaginians expanded and established small settlements (called emporia in Greek) along the North African coast; these settlements eventually served as market towns as well as anchorages....

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists say they have found the best way yet to analyze the effects of smoking on the brain – by taking functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of people while they puff on e-cigarettes. In a small pilot study, the researchers used electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, to mimic the behavioral aspects of smoking tobacco cigarettes, and say future studies could help scientists understand why smoking is so addictive....

Drug addicts often have trouble holding down a job. Yet many experts believe that having a steady income is key to helping addicts quit. To that end, psychiatrist Kenneth Silverman of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and his colleagues created “therapeutic workplaces.” The technique features frequent drug tests, unlimited second chances and cash bonuses to addicts who keep clean. Research in recent years has suggested that Silverman has indeed homed in on a winning strategy....

According to conventional wisdom, Apple blew its first chance to dominate the computer industry. It missed out on becoming the 800-pound PC gorilla because its systems were too closed. Not just in the literal sense—the original Macintosh computers were sealed tight, so tinkerers couldn’t fool around with the guts—but in the licensing sense. That is, only Apple could make computers running the Mac operating system. Microsoft, on the other hand, licensed Windows to any old computer company—and today Windows runs 90 percent of the world’s PCs....

Auroras—more commonly known as the northern and southern lights—are often counted among the wonders of the world. But they are actually wonders on other worlds, too. Astronomers have detected these ethereal curtains of light in the atmospheres of other planets and now, according to a study published in Nature on July 30, a substellar object called a brown dwarf. This object hosts the first known auroras beyond the solar system. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group....

In the 1990s telecommunications firms began laying down a glut of fiber-optic cables in preparation for hyperfast Internet connections and other data-hungry applications. Unfortunately, going the “last mile”–connecting the main optical lines to homes–proved financially burdensome, and companies largely shelved such plans after the technology stock bubble burst in 2000. In the past year, however, serious efforts have begun to bridge the final gap, but not all of them involve using pure fiber all the way....

The items below are highlights from the free newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign up here. U.S. colleges and universities are planning for a “kind of normal” fall ’21 semester, reports Mark Kreidler at Kaiser Health News (4/6/21). By normal, administrators mean a campus that is open, with students in residence halls and attending classes in person. Some schools expect to stagger student attendance in class, and “all plan to have vaccines and plenty of testing available,” the story states....

The world’s most advanced cosmic-ray detector took 16 years and $2 billion to build, and not long ago it looked as though it would wind up mothballed in some warehouse. NASA, directed to finish building the space station and retire the space shuttle by the end of 2010, said it simply did not have room in its schedule to launch the instrument anymore. Saving it took a lobbying campaign by physicists and intervention by Congress to extend the shuttle program....

Once upon a time there were no minerals anywhere in the cosmos. No solids of any kind could have formed, much less survived, in the superheated maelstrom following the big bang. It took half a million years before the first atoms—hydrogen, helium and a bit of lithium—emerged from the cauldron of creation. Millions more years passed while gravity coaxed these primordial gases into the first nebulas and then collapsed the nebulas into the first hot, dense, incandescent stars....

Healthy food kills—or at least it can. In 2010 foodborne illness sickened nearly 20,000 Americans. Of those infected, more than 4,000 had to be hospitalized; 68 died. The main culprits were bacteria—Salmonella and Escherichia coli, to be precise—that had taken cover in products widely considered healthy. Although E. coli infection rates have declined somewhat since food production companies began meeting new federal food safety regulations in 2006, cases of salmonella infection have remained steady for more than a decade....

When does memory begin? We can’t consciously call up images from our infancy, but we surely learn important, lasting associations at very early ages. New work suggests this type of memory begins even in the womb. In a study published in July in Child Development, researchers from the Netherlands reported short-term memory in 30- to 38-week-old fetuses. First they put a vibrating, honking device on the abdomens of 93 preg­nant women....

Researchers report they have set aloft the first large unmanned aerial vehicle powered solely by a compressed hydrogen fuel cell, the same kind of technology being developed for hybrid cars. Although it flew for no more than a minute, further refinements could potentially allow this type of aircraft to make a transatlantic voyage within five years. Hydrogen fuel cells are desired for their ability to replace fossil fuel in some settings....

Trained mediators are usually taught to value niceness and trust-building in disputes so they can work with the negotiating parties to reach an agreement. But a new study (pdf) in Management Science suggests that in certain situations hostility from the mediator can prompt adversaries to come to an agreement. “When a mediator is hostile, those in conflict see the mediator as a common enemy,” explains organizational behavior researcher Ting Zhang at Columbia University, lead author of the study....

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazineThe largest and most high-profile chimpanzee research centre in the United States has acknowledged to Nature that 137 infant chimpanzees have been born to federally owned animals under its care since 2000, despite a government moratorium on such births. The centre says that it abided by the policy because the infant chimps are not supported by federal funds. But critics claim that any breeding of government chimps violates the spirit of the ban, which they consider was partly a response to ethical concerns about research on chimps....

KEY CONCEPTS Nutrition advice is confusing. Scientists have difficulty deriving clear guidelines because a study of an individual nutrient fails to produce an understanding of what happens to it when mixed with other nutrients in the body. The picture becomes more clouded because industry groups constantly press their message to both government agencies and consumers about the benefits of eating particular food products. The simplest message may be the best: do not overeat, exercise more, consume mostly fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and avoid junk foods....

Governments of the world are now launching climate change negotiations for after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires. World leaders acknowledge that civilization is on a dangerous course. Yet there is still little consensus about how to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gases. We suffer no shortage of ideas about the instruments of action. For example, the world’s governments could impose taxes on carbon emissions that are high enough to choke off the use of fossil fuels in favor of higher-cost but cleaner alternatives....

Passwords have steadfastly remained the primary way we prove our identity to the many Web sites and apps that have become integral to daily life. Despite years of predictions that passwords would eventually be phased out in favor of more secure approaches to authentication, such as biometrics, they persist because they are inexpensive and remain one of the better compromises between security and usability. Managing dozens of passwords is even more challenging than coming up with good ones in the first place....

The Truth about Trust: How It Determines Success in Life, Love, Learning, and More by David DeSteno Hudson Street Press, 2014 When a person proposes marriage, she or he takes a leap of faith. Trust, writes psychologist DeSteno, is essential to all relationships. It bonds family and friends and guides important decisions. When a friend or partner turns out to be disloyal, the stakes can be high. So how do we know when to trust someone?...

Scientists have discovered the largest black holes yet, and they’re far bigger than researchers expected based on the galaxies in which they were found. The discovery suggests we have much to learn about how monster black holes grow, scientists said. All large galaxies are thought to harbor super-massive black holes at their hearts that contain millions to billions of times the mass of our sun. Until now, the largest black hole known was a mammoth dwelling in the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87....