Benham's top is named after the English toymaker Charles Benham, who, in 1895, sold a top painted with the pattern shown. When the disk is spun, arcs of pale color — called Fechner colors or pattern induced flicker colors — are visible at different places on the disk. Not everyone sees the same colors. The phenomenon is not entirely understood. One possible reason people see colors may be that the color receptors in the human eye respond at different rates to red, green, and blue.
Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their mummification.
Peach stone carving has a long history in China and is first recorded in the middle of the Song dynasty.
Chirimen-bon is a book made of crepe paper, usually illustrated with multi-colored woodblocks print and bound in Japanese style. Many of them were produced from the Meiji to early Showa era (latter half of the 19th century to first half of the 20th century).
Pemmican is dried meat pounded into coarse powder and mixed with an equal amount of melted fat, and occasionally saskatoon berries or other edibles. It's the ultimate protein bar.
Mutter Museum is a collection of medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment.
The Gronchi Rosa is a rare Italian postage stamp design error. The 205 liras rosa was intended for the stopover in Peru. The artist made a mistake with the boundaries between Peru and Ecuador.
A museum full of exhibits invented by eccentrics - from a heated garden gnome to finger nail guillotines to high heel protectors.
René Dagron was a French photographer and inventor. During the siege of Paris, Dagron proposed to the authorities to use his microfilming process to carry the messages by carrier pigeons. Dagron photographed pages of newspapers in their entirety which he then converted into miniature photographs. He subsequently removed the collodion film from the glass base and rolled it tightly into a cylindrical shape which he then inserted into miniature tubes that were transported fastened on the wings of pigeons. Upon receipt the microphotograph was reattached to a glass frame and was then projected by magic lantern on the wall. The message contained in the microfilm could then be transcribed or copied. By 28 January 1871, when Paris and the Government of National Defense surrendered, Dagron had delivered 115,000 messages to Paris by carrier pigeon.
Aerogel is a manufactured material with the lowest bulk density of any known porous solid. It is derived from a gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with a gas. The result is an extremely low-density solid with several remarkable properties, most notably its effectiveness as a thermal insulator. It is nicknamed frozen smoke, solid smoke, solid air or blue smoke due to its translucent nature and the way light scatters in the material.