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The article presents a list of twenty little-known facts about alcohol including that all alcohols are lethal toxins with varying potency, whisky and brandy were listed as scientifically approved medicines in the United States Pharmacopeia until 1916, and methanol has the ability to destroy optic nerves.

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jan-feb/03

The article offers travel tips for Edwards Air Force Base, a U.S. aerospace testing facility located in the Mojave Desert in California, and includes recommendations such as visiting the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Test Center.

The article focuses on geological sites in Arkansas. Blanchard Springs Cavern north of Little Rock is the country's largest living cave system with limestone and speleothem cave formations. Arkansas has many caves for spelunking, and the Cavers of the Batesville Region of Arkansas (COBRA), a caving club, welcomes spelunkers. Other sites mentioned include hot springs and Crater of Diamonds State Park.

The article focuses on Trinity Site in New Mexico, where, on July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was exploded. The article notes that twice a year, the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range sponsors a tour of the site. The proximity of the Valley of Fires lava field and the Very Large Array telescope is notes. Radiation levels at the site are explained to be very low, though tourist skepticism is noted.

The article presents the author's comments as a citizen scientist working on the Old Weather Navy web-based project for deciphering climate data recorded in antique ship logbooks. Topics include the use of historical data in climate modeling, the transcription of weather data recorded in ship logs, and the volunteer model for transcription and climatology data collection by the Old Weather Navy.

The article discusses the contest on the television game show "Jeopardy!" between International Business Machine's supercomputer Watson and previous winning contestants Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in which the computer was declared the winner. The author argues that the contest was more of a victory for the creative intelligence and problem-solving ability of Watson's human designers than the supercomputer's artificial intelligence.

The article presents a list of facts about fire including information on spontaneous combustion, the use of fire in Aztec religion, and the 1666 Great Fire of London, England.

The article presents a list of 20 facts about sausage, including that sausage was the first processed food, that the word comes from the Latin word for salted, and that nitrites are used to kill botulism in sausage production.

The article reports on the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) web site, "Did You Feel It?," which encourages people who have felt an earthquake to report it to the USGS and answer a few questions related to the experience.

The article lists 20 things a person might not know about digestion including the length of the gastrointestinal tract, the total surface area of the small intestine when unfolded, and the fact that much of the basic understanding of gastric physiology originates from the work of Army surgeon William Beaumont.