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Featured Article: Modernism

Franz Marc, 1913 "The Fate of the animals."

Modernism here describes a series of sometimes radical movements in art, architecture, photography, music, literature, and the applied arts which emerged in the three decades before 1914. Modernism encompasses the works of artists who rebelled against nineteenth-century academic and historicist traditions, believing that earlier aesthetic conventions were becoming outdated. Modernist movements, such as Cubism in the arts, Atonality in music, and Symbolism in poetry, directly and indirectly explored the new economic, social, and political aspects of an emerging fully industrialized world.

Popular Article: Scale (zoology)

Keeled scales of buff-striped keelback Amphiesma stolata, a colubrid snake

In zoology, scale generally refers to a small, platelike outgrowth of the skin of an animal that affords protection. These dermal or epidermal structures form the integument of reptiles, most fish, and some mammals, and similar structures are found on insects, such as butterflies and moths. Scales provide various values for the animals with them, including protection of the body, aid in locomotion, retention of moisture, and protective coloration, such as camouflage and warnings to potential predators.

Did you know?

The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood for only 56 years before falling during an earthquake (source: Colossus of Rhodes)

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