The Starship Enterprise traces its name back through many generations of fictional and real life ships, dating back to the 16th century. Do other cultures with strong naval traditions (China, Portugal e.g.) have equivalent ship names that trace back through many iterations of naval or space travel? (www.reddit.com)
I often have heard that throughout history cities were destroyed and then rebuilt in the same location on top of the old one. How did this actually happen? Was there massive leveling projects where new soil was placed on top? Why are ancient ruins always underground? (www.reddit.com)
What was the cause for the drop of American high schools that offered shop classes in the '80s and '90s and through the early 21st century? (www.reddit.com)
The Rubicon River is one of the most famous in history because Julius Caesar started a civil war when he crossed it. "Crossing the Rubicon" now means to do something you can't take back. So how did we manage to lose the Rubicon River? Why don't we know where it is? (www.reddit.com)
Does the body constantly produce vitamin D when out in the sun, or does it get to a point where it's got enough and shuts down the process? (www.reddit.com)
The "one-Electron universe" was somewhat humorously proposed to explain why every Electron is identical. But why would that need explaining? Why should we expect electrons to not be identical? (www.reddit.com)
In the viral Bill Maher video on Presentism, he mentions that slavery was a common practice because people were generally more brutal in the past. Should the general decrease in brutality over history be more contested taking into account ancient India and China? (www.reddit.com)
European colonists brought infectious diseases that killed a huge number of Native Americans because they did not have immunity. Did Native Americans also infect colonialists with new diseases? If not, why not? (www.reddit.com)
European captials have, almost without exemption, access to water. Many are situated near the sea, or ar build around great rivers such as the Danube. Then there's Madrid. Is there any explanation for this? (www.reddit.com)
If the moon's spin is tidally-locked so that it's synchronized with it rotational rate (causing it to almost always look the same from Earth), once humans colonize the moon, will the lunar inhabitants experience "day" and "night" on the moon? (www.reddit.com)
AskScience AMA Series: We're excited to bring you industry experts from the Royal Society for Peer Review Week 2022. Join our experts who will be answering all your questions around the theme 'Research Integrity: Creating and supporting trust in research'. Ask us anything! All welcome. (www.reddit.com)
How many men died DIGGING the trenches in ww1? In modern construction, trenching is one of the most deadly tasks, requiring shoring or trench walls. (www.reddit.com)
I’m from Aruba, small island in the Caribbean. My grandparents always told me they had to switch off their lights at night during WW2 to not be spotted by German aircraft. How is this possible if Germany never sent its aircraft carriers to the Caribbean? (www.reddit.com)
"Just Say No" to drugs is widely regarded as a failed strategy and may have actually worsened the drug problem it was trying to dampen. Why did it fail and should the administration have known it would fail? Was there pushback from social scientists and medical professionals? (www.reddit.com)
2021 saw an unexpected wave of sea shanty revivalism, but how popular were songs like 'Wellerman', 'Old Maui', and other sea songs and shanties in practice among Whaling and other vessels? (www.reddit.com)
Women of reddit, do you get a lot of flattery (on your appearance) on a daily basis or is it just a myth? If yes, what do they say exactly ? (www.reddit.com)
Louis XIV, the longest serving monarch in history, is speculated to have been diabetic. How did he survive so long with 1600s/early 1700s medicine? (www.reddit.com)
I’m Dr. Christian Raffensperger, author of Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus’ in the Medieval World, and I’m here to talk about medieval eastern Europe and, if you’re interested, the medieval factors in the war in Ukraine. AMA! (www.reddit.com)
I've recently learned that most 'dungeons' I've seen while visiting castles in my homeland Spain were actually water deposits decorated with fake racks. When did the obsession with imagined dungeons start and why? And did castles have real dungeons at all? (www.reddit.com)
Ancient Rome offered its conquered subjects a "good deal": We'll give you ports, roads, sewers, aqueducts, hook you into our wealth-building global trade network, and defend you. All we ask is that you say a prayer for our emperor once in awhile and pay your taxes. How onerous was that tax burden? (www.reddit.com)
The cannons at Edinburgh Castle have what appears to be a dollar sign on one side of the pivot. Does anyone know what this indicates? I assume this symbol predates the US dollar, since the cannons likely do as well. (www.reddit.com)