THG's Year in Review

In 1891, British humorist Jerome K. Jerome wrote that “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories.”

A Busy Week

The road to plentiful aluminum was long, and literally dozens of important scientists were involved over a period of centuries in the effort to purify the metal. In the end, the solution would come almost simultaneously from two scientists, each just 22 years of age.

While little known in the US today, In the early 1900s, a Basque sport that had been played for centuries seemed poised to enter America’s mainstream.

An Olympic medal event only since 1998 you might think that curling is a relatively new sport apparently invented in Canada. And, of course, neither is true. The sport dates back at least to the 16th century, and comes from perhaps a surprising place.