A Special Place for Blog Lovers with a Touch of Science!

Credit: © Unternehmensarchiv Porsche AG

Who would have thought it? One of the earliest examples of electric car was invented in Vienna – more than one hundred years ago. The Austrian coachmaker Ludwig Lohner and automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche produced an electric car in 1899 for the Vienna-based Lohner Werke company. A year later, this breakthrough piece of engineering was presented at the World Expo in Paris.

In 1900, the first hybrid vehicle followed. The reasons behind the invention were quite similar to those behind the push for electric vehicles today. Lohner believed that the air would be "inexorably damaged by increasing numbers of petrol engines". And for some time, it seemed like the electric engine and not the internal combustion engine would come out in front. Unfortunately, crippling development costs and a legal dispute over patents spelled the end for Vienna's Lohner-Porsche vehicle just a few years later.

(via www.wien.info)

Credit: A painting by Johannes Paulus Moreelse, via Wikipedia

1. "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."

2. "Time is a game played beautifully by children."

3. "The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only about those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way."

Credit: Getty images

Research led by Stony Brook University scientists focuses on the interplay among the evolution of the landscape, climate and fossil record of mammal evolution, and mammal diversification in the Western U.S.

A little-explored aspect of the research is the connection between gravitational forces deep in the Earth and landscape evolution. Now, in a U.S. National Science Foundation-supported paper in Nature Communications, the researchers show through computer modeling that deep roots under mountain belts (analogous to the massive ice below the tips of icebergs) trigger dramatic movements along faults. These movements ultimately result in a collapse of the mountain belt and exposure of rocks once some 15 miles below the surface.

Credit: Photograph of Jerome published in the 1890s; Via Wikipedia

It's Friday, finally! The working week it's over. Only a few more hours of labor and we will enjoy a pleasant and lazy weekend. Well, maybe it won't be so much entertainment as Jerome K. Jerome would draw out of it however we can, at least, try. Here is some piece of his precious advice on how we can do it. Enjoy your time, and don't forget that a good portion of rest and laughter is not only healthy things to have but an obligatory act of mental self-care.

Credit: Getty images

Each day, we take about 20 000 breaths. The oxygen in the air nourishes the cells in our bodies. But when the air we breathe contains harmful particulate matter and chemicals, those contaminants can also find their way into our body.

Air pollution is one of the greatest threats to human health and kills millions of people worldwide every year. According to estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2019, 99% of the global population lived in places where air quality failed to meet WHO guidelines.

In the European Union the same year, 307 000 people died prematurely as a result of chronic exposure to tiny particles of pollution, according to the European Environment Agency's report on air quality in Europe.