If you’re worried about the possibility of a coming bird flu epidemic, you can take comfort in the fact that humanity has survived a similar influenza epidemic in the past. Starting its rounds at the end of World War I, the 1918 flu killed an estimated 50 million people. It killed more people in a year than the Bubonic Plague, and in its more than a year of existence killed more people than AIDS did in 25 years.
Popularly known as the Spanish Flu, this strain of influenza was far worst than your common cold. Normally, influenza only kills those who are more vulnerable to disease, such as newborns, the old or sick. However, the Spanish Flu was prone to killing the young and healthy. Often it would disable its victims in hours; within a day, they would be dead, typically from extreme cases of pneumonia. Unfortunately, this quick death was not enough to keep the disease from spreading all over the world.
The Spanish flu was quite nasty – fast-spreading and deadly. The Spanish Flu managed to spread across the globe, devastating the world. Then suddenly, after two years ravaging the Earth, it disappeared as quickly as it had arose.
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From the cloudy reservoir of history it is often difficult to separate legend from reality, and such is the case with the story of the infamous American mountain man John Johnston. It is certain that throughout his life he was known by many names, but most famously he came to be known at the time as “Crow Killer” and “Liver-Eating Johnson.” 
A type of mushroom called Amanita muscaria grows in some parts of Siberia, and it contains a cocktail of hallucinogenic chemicals. One who consumes the sun-dried mushrooms will usually experience euphoria and hallucinations, but one will also experience a host of unpleasant side-effects, such as nausea, twitching, and an increase sweat and saliva output. 
Most cells in the human body can only multiply a certain number of times, then they inevitably die. This limit is named the Haystack Limit, for the man who first observed and published this observation. In humans, the average cell can divide 52 times. During each division, a portion of the DNA called the Telomere is shortened, and this shortening is suspected to be one of the causes of aging, the eventual degradation of the body, and ultimate death.
“Lighter-than-air” airships were once a promising breed, providing an inexpensive way to move large amounts of people and cargo for long distances. But after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, flight-by-buoyancy was all but abandoned by the aeronautics industry. Hot air balloons and blimps have seen occasional use, but the giant, rigid-airship zeppelins were all dismantled by 1940, and have hardly been seen since. 
In medicine, as in many other endeavors, correctly assessing the problem is the biggest part of finding the solution. If you can diagnose the patient correctly, you’re halfway to a solution. If you can’t, you’re whistling in the dark.
David Hahn was an Eagle Scout who had a merit badge in atomic energy; as everyone should know, that is ample education to build and maintain a nuclear breeder reactor in one’s backyard. So in 1994, that is what he proceeded to do. And it wasn’t too hard. Radioactive elements are all around us.
Early in the 1200’s, Genghis Khan and the Mongol army he commanded were well on their way to becoming the most feared army in history. While many Khans before him had commanded large numbers of the fierce steppe warriors, never before had they been able to sustain a lengthy war against the cities that lay to the east and south of their home territory. Part of Genghis Khan’s unprecedented success came from his leadership abilities and charisma – no Mongol leader before him had managed to unite the disparate tribes into one cohesive unit – but another part came from his intense dedication to the practical.