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This week, the SciFri Book Club concludes its discussion of David Grann’s non-fiction tale of Amazonian exploration, The Lost City of Z. The book recounts the life—and mysterious disappearance—of Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett, who once posited the existence of a lost Amazonian city called “Z.” But was “Z” a real place? And could the harsh Amazonian landscape ever have supported ancient, complex civilizations? Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger studies archaeological sites in the Amazon’s Xingu region, and features in the conclusion of Grann’s tale. He describes the “garden cities” he’s uncovered, suggesting that ancient civilizations once thrived in the Amazon.

Uncovering the Amazon’s Real ‘Lost Cities’

Ryan Rykaczewski describes one of the most massive migrations on the planet, driven by the sun. Image by Tintinnidguy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 

#ExplainTheSun  - The Largest Migration on The Planet

Once, there was the ordinary incandescent light bulb. It shone brightly, but wasted much of the energy put into it as heat. Then came the compact fluorescent. And as costs have dropped, consumers have increasingly been switching to light-emitting diode (LED) technology for many lighting applications, in an ongoing search for a more efficient bulb. Now, in work published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, researchers report that nanophotonic devices may be able to breathe new life into old incandescent technology. Marin Soljačić and Ognjen Ilic, two authors of the study, explain how they’ve been able to “recycle” some of the incandescent bulb’s wasted heat and re-emit it as visible light, boosting efficiency.

For the Lowly Incandescent Bulb, a Ray of Hope

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Uncovering the Amazon’s Real ‘Lost Cities’

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