All posts tagged: Invent

Teens invent first chewing gum to tackle anxiety

Teens invent first chewing gum to tackle anxiety

Published by skeptic

adolescent: Someone in that transitional stage of physical and psychological development that begins at the onset of puberty, typically between the ages of 11 and 13, and ends with adulthood. annual: Adjective for something that happens every year. (in botany) A plant that lives only one year, so it usually has a showy flower and produces many seeds. antioxidant: Any of many chemicals that can shut down oxidation — a biologically damaging reaction. They do this by donating an electron to a free radical (a reactive molecular fragment) without becoming unstable. Many plant-based foods are good sources of natural antioxidants, including vitamins C and E. anxious: (n. anxiety) A feeling of dread over some potential or upcoming situation, usually one over which someone feels they have little control. chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H2O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe …

During WWI, a daredevil pilot helped invent the first ‘drones’

During WWI, a daredevil pilot helped invent the first ‘drones’

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. On November 21, 1916, pilot and inventor Lawrence Sperry was flying over Long Island’s Great South Bay with his student Dorothy Rice Pierce when his plane suddenly plunged into the water.  Sperry later admitted that he’d accidentally bumped the autopilot, a technology he’d recently invented, disengaging it and causing the crash. Both survived, although Pierce suffered a fractured pelvis. The crash spawned sensational headlines such as “Aerial Petting—Ends in Wetting,” a phrase that has lingered in aviation lore and later histories of Sperry’s career. But the real story was not an aerial scandal. It was that Sperry’s autopilot invention was the more reliable pilot. Long before GPS, programmed flight, or computer vision, Lawrence Sperry had solved one of aviation’s most pressing problems: aircraft instability. But the thrill-seeking inventor didn’t stop there. If an airplane could be balanced in the sky without a pilot, he reasoned, it could also be controlled from afar and sent on missions without a human …

How to invent a language — like that of Avatar’s Na’vi

How to invent a language — like that of Avatar’s Na’vi

Published by skeptic

alien: (in astronomy) Life on or from a distant world. ancestor: A predecessor. It could be a family forebear, such as a parent, grandparent or great-great-great grandparent. Or it could be a species, genus, family or other order of organisms from which some later one evolved. For instance, ancient dinosaurs are the ancestors of today’s birds. (antonym: descendant) anthropologist: A social scientist who studies humankind, often by focusing on its societies and cultures. audio: Having to do with sound. blog: Short for web log, these internet posts can take the form of news reports, topical discussions, opinionated rants, diaries or photo galleries. census: An official count or survey of a population. code: (in computing) To use special language to write or revise a program that makes a computer do something. (n.) Code also refers to each of the particular parts of that programming that instructs a computer’s operations. cognitive: A term that relates to mental activities, such as thinking, learning, remembering and solving puzzles. colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member. common ancestor: …

Friedrich von Schlegel, the Idealist Who Wanted to Invent a New Mythology

Friedrich von Schlegel, the Idealist Who Wanted to Invent a New Mythology

Published by skeptic

Published: Nov 16, 2025written by Mirjana Jojić, BA Literature and Theory of Literature, in-progress   Let’s go back briefly to the year 1800—a year extremely important for the Romantic movement and the Philosophy of Idealism for a couple of reasons: Schelling publishes his System of Transcendental Idealism, and Wordsworth adds the famous preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads. The most important reason for us is that Schlegel published his Dialogue on Poetry, implementing his idea that one can write about poetry only through the poetry itself. Written on the model of Plato’s Symposium, is his own work: The Debate on Mythology.    Friedrich von Schlegel and Dialogues on Poetry The Looks of Athenaeum from 1798. Source: Public Domain   Friedrich von Schlegel was one of the most significant minds of German Romanticism. He was a master in many fields: not only a literary critic and theoretician, a philosopher and historian, but he was also a linguist and philologist. A man with so many interests, he started studying law. Still, he soon discovered …