Before the eighteenth century, botany was merely a branch of medicine. Until then, mostly doctors and surgeons studied herbs. Attempts had been made by others to classify plant species into groups, but the breakthrough came with the work of Carl Lin...
Australia was discovered about 53,000 years ago. It is possible that the first people crossed into Australia from Asia on a great land bridge when the water level of the oceans was lower. The first Australians are often called Aborigines, which means...
Australia is as old as time. It was probably once connected to South America, but the continents separated as the earth's plates moved. Having been separated from other continents for millions of years, Australia has many plants and animals that cann...
THE PORTRAZT OF A NATION Modem Australia is made up of six states and two territories: Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. Australia is surrounded...
THE UNKNOWN SOUTHERN LAND The unknown southern land was an imaginary continent, appearing on European maps from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. It was first put there by a Greek map maker in the first century AD. He believed that south of t...
By the middle of the 1920s the farthest corners of the earth had already been explored: the continents and the oceans had been mapped, the North and South Poles had been reached, and the origins, of the world's major rivers had been discovered. All t...
Trade and curiosity have often formed the foundation for mankind's greatest endeavour. To people of early civilisations, the world map was a great puzzle. Marco Polo's stories inspired Christopher Columbus and other European explorers to search for s...
Starting a stamp collection is easy and not very expensive. Before you start, you need to decide what kind of stamps you want to collect. Most people collect stamps that have something to do with what they are interested in: a certain country, a type...
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? Hey man, try that 360 again! It is Saturday afternoon and a group of teenagers are trying new tricks on the park's skating ramp. Every weekend, after finishing their homework, Lin Yong and about a dozen of his friends grab their...
THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS In 1951, the then director of the Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver, wanted to settle an argument about the fastest bird in Europe. After talking to his friends, he concluded that a book which answered such questio...
