History

German architect J. Mayer H. was challenged to create a villa for a family and the families of their offspring. The original house had been built on the same spot in 1988 and since, several modifications and additions were made to that house. Now, starting from scratch on the footprint left by the original house...

Read all about this very special musical egg so reminiscent of the masterpieces crafted by Carl Fabergé for the royal family of Russia.. Its beauty is only magnified by the fact that it plays, upon opening, The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite on an 18-note key-wound musical movement.

This story is about your average potatoes, carrots, cucumbers and 30 or so other fruits and vegetables that just happen, by slight of nature, to grow ugly instead of true to some idealized form. Bent, knarly carrots, potatoes with sprouts, discolored spots on cucumbers... are considered, for lack of a better word, ugly in the European Union and, until now, could not be sold.

During the last twenty-five years, the aerospace industry in Russia, has developed a remarkably diverse range of weapons and has displayed enormous creativity, particularly in the sphere of missile design. Read on and…hold your breath.

Next month at Sotheby’s auction house in New York a landmark sale is slated to take place. It will include prized relics from the Soviet era of space exploration that are owned by American billionaire, Ross Perot, who purchased them back in the 90s. Read on, but remember there are no exchanges or returns.

The successful cloning by Japanese researchers of a mouse kept in deep freeze for 16 years has sparked hope that prehistoric Woolly Mammoths may walk the Earth again one day.

Archeologists in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar are baffled by the remains of an ancient loving couple found in a burial ground discovered during excavation for a hotel complex. Buried together, it is thought that the couple might be members of a mysterious tribe heretofore unknown to science. Read on and learn more. Maybe.

Last month a weekend was set aside and considered a professional holiday for Russian tank enthusiasts. There were no wild celebrations in Gorky Park; just a visit to the small town of Kubinka and its huge tank museum, which actually belongs to a former top-secret research institute for armored vehicles. Read on but…hush, hush. Need I say more?

I discovered three interesting Halloween businesses that have already captured the holiday's market.

Although certainly not for everyone, there are those who would find the sight of a genuine Soviet submarine stranded on the edge of a Moscow reservoir in an old orchard park surreal and captivating. Read on and learn more about this odd and certainly one-of–a-kind Russian museum.

A new comet has been discovered at the University of Calgary’s Rothney Astrophysical Observatory.

Archeologists have discovered more than ten prehistoric rocky sculptures in the Carpathian Mountains near the village of Snidavka, in the Ukraine. What historical significance do they have? No one really knows, but read on for some thoughts on the subject.

The 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded today to three biochemists for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP, originating in the Aequorea victoria jellyfish. The three scientists - Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien - contributed greatly to the study of cell biology, by identifying and marking proteins that contribute to illness and disease.

Today, in Stockholm, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three Japanese physicists - Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi, and Toshihide Maskawa. In different studies, 14 years apart, these men contributed to the understanding of broken symmetries at the sub-atomic, or quark, level of matter and antimatter. The work of these men has led to an understanding of why everything in nature does not react symmetrically.

It's taken a few years from design to realization, but the Museum of Arts And Design (MAD) will finally re-open in its new dazzling diggs on September 27, 2008. Its new address: 2 Columbus Circle, right at the southwest corner of Central Park, and right at the heart of New York City's world stage for theatre, ballet, orchestra, opera, and now arts and design.

What if plastic wasn't made from oil or natural gas? What if it was made from Bacteria? Would it be safer for the environment? Would it be safer for us? What if the bacteria were genetically engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli)?

A huge new contraption created by the Russian Navy may well help European scientists uncover the answers to a number of fundamental scientific questions. Read all about the world’s largest particle accelerator, a landmark of modern physics, and don’t forget to …stand back.

The first weekend in September is important in Moscow, for it marks the birth of the Russian capital with parades and entertainment. Read all about the famous Russian rocket scientist pioneer being honored at this special celebration.

Christie's, the London-based auction house, which has restricted itself to the sale of original antique art and design for 250 years, will be auctioning its first outstanding pieces of contemporary design at Rockefeller Center in New York City on September 8, 2008. This gives private design collectors the opportunity to bid on items from some of the most renowned furniture designers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.