Top 10 Structurally Amazing Bridges

Bridges have been around ever since humans began to move themselves -- and their goods -- from one place to another. Early bridge engineers had to do little more than fell a tree across a ravine or stream, but they soon discovered that they could span greater distances and haul heavier loads by putting more time and energy into their structures. Roman engineers perfected the stone arch and used it to buildaqueducts -- bridges that conveyed fresh water great distances -- and similar structures to carry traffic across streams and rivers. But the Industrial Revolution took bridge building to new heights and even greater lengths. By the end of the 19th century, record-breaking bridges seemed to come fast and furious. The Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, was the longest spanning bridge in the world -- until Scottish engineers completed the Firth of Forth Bridge just seven years later. A new century brought longer, more amazing bridges. In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge stretched its 8,981-foot (2,737-meter) back over the treacherous waters of the San Francisco Bay. Today, engineers continue to test the limits of science and imagination. They experiment with innovative materials, designs and methods of construction. Their finished products move cars and trains. They also move people's souls. What follows is a survey of some of the most breathtaking bridges of the modern era. We've limited ourselves to just 10 bridges, but not to any particular region of the world.

10 Expensive Restorations

There are lots of reasons to renovate a structure. Deterioration, changes in taste and the need for more space have all had an impact on the complexion of architectural refurbishment. Over the centuries, some of the most breathtaking buildings onEarth have been renovated many times. A few have maintained their original function throughout, while others have been repurposed for emerging religions and different political climates. Many have seen the predations of war and the ravages of neglect. Some of these monuments to human ingenuity are embodiments of how our tastes and priorities have changed over time, as well as the choices afforded to us in materials. Building is an expensive enterprise, and rebuilding can be even more challenging, both from a design and an economical standpoint. What we build and what we preserve from the past says a lot about us. In the next few pages, we'll explore 10 structures that have undergone expensive renovations, many more than once. Some are among the most beloved and beautiful structures ever made. First up, the palace of Westminster, or as it's more commonly known, the Houses of Parliament.

10 Biggest Snowstorms of All Time

Anyone who's ever lived in a chilly climate knows snowstorms well. Sometimes the weather forecast gives ample warning, but other times these storms catch us by surprise. Plows struggle to keep roads clear, schools are closed, events are canceled, flights are delayed and everyone gets sore backs from all the shoveling and snowblowing.
But there are those rare snowstorms that exceed all forecasts, break all records and cause mass devastation (even if it's devastation that will melt in a few days or weeks). These storms are the worst of the worst, weather events that seem more like elemental blasts of pure winter rather than a simple combination of wind, temperature and precipitation.
Defining the 10 "biggest" snowstorms can be a tricky task. You can't simply rely on objective measures like the amount of snow. Often, the worst storms involve relatively modest snowfalls whipped into zero-visibility by hurricane-force winds. Some storms are worse than others because they impact major urban areas, or are so widespread that they affect several major urban areas. Timing can play a role as well -- a storm during weekday rush hour is worse than one on a Saturday morning, and a freak early storm when leaves are still on the trees can cause enormous amounts of damage. In fact, meteorologists have developed a system similar to the one used to classify hurricanes to measure the severity of winter storms. The Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS) takes in account a variety of factors and generates a single number that signifies a storm's severity, usually on a scale from one to 10 -- and sometimes higher.

10 Construction Projects That Broke the Bank

We live in an era in which practically anything that can be imagined can be built: artificial islands, floating hotels, skyscrapers that cause passersby to strain their necks just looking up at them, massive underwater tunnels and bridges spanning once-unthinkable lengt­hs. But with these great construction projects come complications, including cost overruns, accidents and even utter disaster. For every great success, such as Dubai's super-swank, self-proclaimed seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel, there's a project like North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel, mired in controversy, uninhabitable and looming over the Pyongyang skyline.
In this article, we're going to take a look at 10 construction projects that broke the bank, including the Ryugyong Hotel. In making up our list, we looked at a variety of criteria: overall cost, cost overrun, size, ambition and general notoriety. Some of these projects took decades to plan and co­nstruct; a couple aren't finished and may never be. Several can be called white elephants -- eyesores or constructions infamous for their cost or general uselessness. Others fulfill their expected purposes, perhaps even serving as gems of modern engineering, but they remain controversial or well known for the costs and challenges they incurred.
­We're going to start with some lesser-known but still astoundingly pricey construction projects and then move on to some of the most famous culprits, such as the Chunnel and the Big Dig.

Top 10 Myths About the Brain

The brain is one of the most amazing organs in the human body. It controls our central nervous system, keeping us walking, talking, breathing and thinking. The brain is also incredibly complex, comprising around 100 billion neurons. There's so much going on with the brain that there are several different fields of medicine and science devoted to treating and studying it, including neurology, which treats physical disorders of the brain; psychology, which includes the study of behavior and mental processes; and psychiatry, which treats mental illnesses and disorders. Some aspects of each tend to overlap, and other fields cross into study of the brain as well.
These disciplines have been around in some form since ancient times, so you'd think that by now we'd know all there is to know about the brain. Nothing could be further from the truth. After thousands of years of studying and treating every aspect of it, there are still many facets of the brain that remain mysterious. And because the brain is so complex, we tend to simplify information about how it works in order to make it more understandable.
Both of these things put together have resulted in many myths about the brain. Most aren't completely off -- we just haven't quite heard the whole story. Let's look at 10 myths that have been circulating about the brain, starting with, of all things, its color.

10 Remarkable Exoplanets

From a planetary perspective, there's no place like home -- as far as we know, at least. Earth has everything we need to thrive: a breathable atmosphere, a plentiful water supply and a temperate climate. But that hasn't stopped us from looking for other intriguing interstellar planets, some of which we might even colonize in the distant future. Finding these planets, known as exoplanets since they're located outside of our solar system, is difficult work.

In January 2012, we knew of more than 700 confirmed exoplanets, quite a small number considering the billions of stars in our galaxy alone. Part of the difficulty is that we can only observe exoplanets indirectly, inferring their existence by the way they affect the stars they orbit. Still, astronomers are becoming more adept at finding exoplanets all the time.
We'll journey farther and farther away from our solar system to learn about some of the most amazing exoplanet finds.

10 Evil Robots Bent on Destroying Humanity

 In science fiction, robots can be friendly, helpful machines -- C-3P0 from the "Star Wars" movie series or the watchful B-9 from the 1960s TV series "Lost in Space," who scurried about on his tank-track feet waving his arms and shouting, "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" immediately come to mind.
But lest we humans become too complacent about the anthropomorphic super-powered mechanical servants that we fantasize about someday creating, it's important to remember the old saying that we should be careful what we wish for. The robots we envision as our tireless, loyal friends easily could morph into frighteningly formidable adversaries. And it wouldn't take much to flip the balance.
The great sci-fi author Isaac Asimov was among the first to recognize this unsettling risk. In his 1942 short story "Runaround," later republished in the 1950 collection "I, Robot," Asimov set forth what he called the Three Laws of Robotics, which were designed to protect us from our synthetic progeny. First: A robot may not injure a human being, or allow one to come to harm through inaction. Second: A robot must obey human orders, as long as they don't contradict the first law. Third: A robot must protect itself, but only to the extent that it doesn't conflict with the first and second laws.
But in many instances in our fantasy future, those rules are honored mostly in the breach. Here are 10 examples of fictional robots that have murder in their artificial hearts.

10 Innovations in Winemaking

Winemaking is an 8,000-year-old tradition, and the first wines tasted ... well, terrible. People added ash, resin and even lead to "enhance" the flavor. Luckily, most wines today are pretty darn tasty on their own, thanks to modern fermentation techniques and innovations in packaging that help your wine stay fresher longer, and you certainly don't have to worry that a wine-maker used lead to improve his product's flavor!
We've also seen a big shift in where we produce wine. Once considered a hoity-toity European beverage, wine is made and drunk all over the world, and you're as likely to find a decent glass of red at your neighborhood pizza joint as at a fancy French restaurant.
Winemakers have also gotten more conscious of their environmental impacts. Since a good wine starts with the grape, and good grapes start with good soil, the wine industry has stayed on the cutting edge of sustainable agriculture. Any vintner worth his salt knows that protecting the environment is more than just good for the planet -- it's good for his wines.
With such a long history, there have been lots of innovations through the centuries, from how winemakers grow grapes to how they market those bottles. Let's look at 10 of them.

10 Misconceptions About the Flu

Millions of Americans get seasonal influenza, commonly called the flu, a contagious viral infection that attacks your respiratory system, including the nose, throat and lungs.
And the flu is nasty stuff. Each year, more than 200,000 Americans get so sick that they have to be hospitalized, and in a bad flu season, close to 50,000 people may die from flu-related illnesses. Additionally, the flu costs the U.S. economy more than $10 billion in medical expenses and another $16 billion in lost earnings.
So you'd think that by now, we'd all have a pretty good understanding of the flu and what we need to do to deal with it. Well, guess again. Consider, for example, the prudence of getting an annual flu vaccine shot, a tried-and-true method of protecting yourself from the illness that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends for all Americans ages 6 months and older.
Amazingly, despite that recommendation, fewer than half of Americans go to the trouble of getting the injection, even though it's something that they can do at the local drugstore these days.
Why are we so cavalier about our health? One part of the problem, as a 2010 Consumer Reports poll revealed, is that many of us either don't know much about the flu or have the facts dangerously wrong. For example, of the 30 percent of Americans who told pollsters they definitely wouldn't get a flu shot, 41 percent said they worried that flu vaccine was unsafe -- a belief that's been repeatedly refuted by health experts.
But with the flu, what you don't know can make you sick -- or even dead. To help you to avoid that fate, here are 10 of the most common misconceptions about the flu, along with the real facts.

10 Inventions by Thomas Edison (That You've Never Heard Of)

Without question, our lives would be very different without the inventions of Thomas Alva Edison. This prodigious creator changed our culture in countless ways with the seemingly miraculous devices that flooded out of his New Jersey laboratory.

Edison, born in Ohio in 1847, obtained his first patent at the age of 22. The last patent in his name was granted two years after his death, in 1933. In between, he tallied 1,093 United States patents and 1,200 patents in other countries. Biographers have figured that Edison averaged a patent every two weeks during his working life. Even though many of his inventions were not unique -- and he engaged in some well-publicized court battles with other inventors whose ideas he "borrowed" -- Edison's skill at marketing and using his influence often got him the credit.
Most of Edison's inventions fall into eight main categories: batteries, electric lights and power, phonographs and sound recording, cement, mining, motion pictures, telegraphs and telephones. But while the Wizard of Menlo Park is remembered for his major inventions -- the motion picture, the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph -- his tireless mind also came up with some ideas that aren't so well known and some that weren't welcomed by the public. Keep reading to find out why members of Congress rejected a machine designed to make them more efficient and how another Edison invention frightened little girls and angered their parents. You'll also find out about a device that could have kept Edison's genius with us even today.

10 Amazing Things People's Brains Have Done

The human brain can do some amazing things - and humans can do amazing things because of it. Just to name one example, we can accept light along the visible wavelength reflected from objects in our environment into our eyes. Our optic nerves convert that light into electrochemical impulses, which is the language the brain uses to communicate. As this electricity passes along a neural network, it reaches the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for analyzing and categorizing these impulses.
These categories determine which region of the brain receives the impulses routed by the hippocampus. So, an impulse sent to the visual cortex suddenly becomes a large green metal road sign that we understand as our exit. We veer the car off the highway and continue on toward the grocery store happy as a lark.

Even the most mundane operations of our brains are pretty amazing. Those feats, however, are nothing compared to some of the things that a small handful of people's brains have done. What follows, in no particular order, is a tidy list of some of the most amazing -- and horrible -- things that people's brains have ever done.

Top 5 Ways to Get Smarter

What is smart? Some people judge smarts by standard benchmarks like test scores and grade point averages. Others think common sense, problem solving abilities and "street smarts" define intelligence. Standardized testing scores have proven unreliable and biased along racial and socioeconomic lines, and cramming for classes can lead to GPAs that aren't a true indicator of intelligence.
While we can't all agree on a standard for intelligence, we can agree that the human brain is the key to all of them. It has a great capacity to adapt, rewire and grow. Neural networks expand and strengthen through learning experiences. Stimuli make the brain stronger and more vital. This reinforcement of the brain's power affects intelligence across all standards, from street smarts to testing scores. Here are five ways you can increase your brain's capacity to take in and store new data. Or, said more simply, here's how you can get smarter.

10 Insane Disguises That Actually Worked

 In comic books, superheroes make disguise look easy. They successfully hide in plain sight even when their costumes aren't clever or, in some cases, even concealing. Seriously, didn't anyone in Metropolis ever think that Superman looked a bit like the tall, handsome journalist hiding conspicuously behind the glasses and self-deprecation?
In real life, disguises are much more difficult to pull off. Just ask any A-lister who's tried to escape the paparazzi by donning a baseball cap and sunglasses. Not only does this rarely work -- it usually results in a hideously ugly photograph on the cover of a celebrity mag.
Which is why disguises that actually conceal their owners are so impressive. Take the Boston Tea Party. Do we relish this American legend because a bunch of Massachusetts colonists tried to turn Boston Harbor into the world's biggest teapot? Sure, but there's also the fact that the colonists disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians before boarding the British tea ships and dumping 342 chests of tea overboard. They were clever and defiant -- and they got away with it.
History is filled with similar connoisseurs of camouflage, and we have an entire list to prove it. Let's start with the granddaddy of all disguises -- the horse that concealed an army that conquered an overconfident enemy.

10 Cool Things You Didn't Know About Stephen Hawking

Even if you don't follow the developing theories in physics, you have probably heard of the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. Most known as a brilliant mind in a paralyzed body, he's prided himself on making his complex physical concepts accessible to the public and writing the bestseller, "A Brief History of Time."

And if you are a fan of Conan O'Brien, "The Simpsons" or "Star Trek," you might have seen him brandishing his cool wit during guest appearances on those shows.
Even if you are familiar with his academic work, however, there are many interesting facts you might not know about Hawking, stretching from his time at school and gradual development of disability to his opinions on the future of the human race.
Many find it surprising, for instance, that, despite his influential body of work, Hawking hasn't yet been awarded the Nobel Prize. We'll talk about some of the remarkable distinctions he has received, however.
Another interesting fact: Hawking was born on Jan. 8, 1942, which just happened to be the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death.
But this has just been the warm-up. Next, we'll delve into some fascinating and unexpected facts about Hawking, including some things about his profoundly inspirational story.

10 Really Smart People Who Did Really Dumb Things

Do you have a friend who's super smart, but when it comes to street smarts he's ... let's say "lacking"? Even the smartest people pull dumb moves sometimes, and for some reason it's extra surprising and disappointing when a smart person screws up. How could that president or general carry on an affair knowing it could easily get out? How did that company CEO think he could embezzle millions and no one would find out?
The truth is that book smarts or business savvy don't make a person perfect. Or streetwise. In fact, smart people seem prone to spectacular lapses in judgment more so than "average" people.
Why? One study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology gave logic problems to people to solve and found that smart people tended to make more mistakes than those of average intellect, because smart people were more likely to take shortcuts or make assumptions due to overconfidence. This is called the bias blind spot.
Of course, overconfidence isn't the only road to a dumb decision. Many of the dumb choices you'll see on this list were motivated by greed, pride, stress, and even sheer laziness. Let's look at 10 memorable moments of "what were you thinking?"

10 Complete Falsehoods about Food

Few childhood rituals are as memorable as a Saturday morning meal with my grandparents. Like most members of the Greatest Generation, my grandfather ate eggs and bacon for breakfast, slathered his toast with real butter and drank coffee with every meal. My grandmother made sure we never went away hungry. Both lived well into their 90s.
Today, I can scarcely bite into bacon, crack an egg or put a knife to butter without feeling a pang of guilt. Not to mention my compulsion to drink eight glasses of water a day, fill my shopping bags with organic food and snatch sugary treats from the grasps of my children. And don't get me started on the penance I pay at the gym for eating a late-night bowl of ice cream.

5 Popular Invention Mashups

When early man attached a stick to a sharpened piece of stone, he set in motion a trend in the creation of tools: the mashup. Eventually, the wheel would meet water, the transistor would meet the radio, the phone would meet the printer and airplane wings would meet the rocket.

In modern times, it's nearly impossible to touch a tool -- from watches to ballpoint pens to electric razors -- that doesn't combine at least a few different technologies.
Here, we present five of the most popular tech mashups that make work easier, playtime more fun and getting around more eco-friendly.

10 Accidental Inventions You Won't Believe

In an era of constant innovation and discovery, we may not realize that most inventions take years -- even decades -- to develop. Although some breakthroughs take a lifetime of dedication, the curious mind needn't worry.

As history shows us, people have crafted new inventions and stumbled upon discoveries by accident. To agree with Nobel prize-winning biochemist Albert Szent-Györgyi: "A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind".
And a prepared mind is usually what it takes. As we learn about 10 accidental inventions and discoveries, remember that some were serendipitous, meaning they were stumbled upon by chance, whereas others occurred while the inventors were trying to discover something else. Take the Slinky, Silly Putty and Play-Doh, for instance. The inventors of these childhood amusements discovered them by chance while trying to discover or invent other things. Such accidental discoveries aren't that rare, actually.
In this article, we'll focus on some of the more unusual accidental discoveries, or ones that will leave you scratching your head in disbelief. These stories show that sometimes it takes a bit of luck to discover the next big thing.
So which inventions and discoveries happened by accident? Read on to learn more.

10 Crazy Evil Spacecraft

File these fictional spacecraft under Earth's "DO NOT WANT" list, because these 10 ships are nothing short of planet-bulldozing, flesh-gorging, humanity-enslaving harbingers of extraterrestrial doom.

Doom, I say!

I know what you're thinking. You're glancing over at that Death Star picture and you're wondering, "What could possibly be worse than having your home world exploded by a planet-sized space vessel?"

As it turns out, quite a bit. Each of these malevolent starships threatens the people of Earth with a fate worse than death. The captains at the helm range from soulless machines and frosty bureaucrats to hedonistic monsters and demons from the depths of hell.

So brace yourself for some horrors -- and thank your lucky stars they're all mere figments of the cosmic imagination.

10 Future Inventions Everyone's Been Waiting For

We get it. You feel like all the science fiction of yesteryear promised you a future of flying cars and hoverboards, and none of it has come to pass. Sure, we have Segways and iPads, but it's small consolation when you wake up every day to a world without "Blade Runner" skylines. But these are only 1980s visions of the future. Back in the '50s and '60s, our expectations for the 21st century were even loftier. With science by our side, nothing seemed out of the question.
Just consider "Magic Highway USA." With an hour's worth of stunning animation, this May 1958 episode of "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" awed television audiences with depictions of automated global highways, underwater road systems and antigravity cars.

A year earlier, Disney's "Mars and Beyond" showed viewers what humanity's future on Mars might entail and even featured segments with famed German-American rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun. It all seemed possible -- and much of it still is.
In this article we'll look at 10 future inventions we've been waiting for all our lives. Which ones are just around the corner, and which ones are mere relics of our post-World War II dreams?