Sometimes our best ideas come when we least expect them. For Greek mathematician Archimedes, this happened during a trip to the local baths. The king of Syracuse had put him in charge of finding out how to detect fraud in the manufacture of a golden crown. The king suspected his goldsmith was leaving out some of the gold and substituting it with silver.
Agony Of Defeat
After a bitter loss, John Herdman, the head coach of the Canadian women’s soccer team spitefully threw their silver medal into the crowd. He later told the media that “I don’t play this game for medals… and not silver ones anyway.” Some people have called him a sore loser, but apparently, his feelings are not uncommon.
Mining Asteroids For Water
The Martians were giants with the strength of twenty men. When they attacked Earth, it looked like all was lost. The Martians were just too strong. Fortunately, their immune systems were not strong enough to fight off common earthly bacteria. Edison’s Conquest of Mars is a science fiction story written in 1898 by Garret Putman Serviss. The story starts as the war for Earth ends, and humans chase the aliens back to their home on Mars.
Your Weight In Gold
Similar to gold, salt has been valued by cultures around the world for thousands of years. The English word salary comes from the Latin word for salt. In ancient Rome salt was so valuable that some people received their monthly pay in the form of salt.