BrainFood

Tea reached Japan as a gift, carried home by monks: in 815, a monk named Eichū, back from China, served tea to Emperor Saga. So how did Japan make tea an art of its own? #tea #matcha #Japan #China #learning #brainfood

Ceylon's tea boom began as a plan B. In the 1800s, the planters on the island we now call Sri Lanka had built a coffee empire, until a small orange spot appeared on a coffee leaf. So how did the coffee island become a tea island? #tea #SriLankan #learning #education #brainfood

Tea or chai? Both words come from China, and in most places the word you use still tells you which road tea took to reach you. So which was it for yours: land or sea? #tea #chai #China #India #learning #education #brainfood

In 1848, plant collector Robert Fortune shaved his head and wore a long pigtail. Then he headed into China's tea country, where foreigners were not allowed to go. How did a leaf from the hills of China end up in teacups all over the world? #tea #China #learning #brainfood

A monk named Eilmer, so a chronicler wrote, glided more than a furlong about 900 years before the Wright brothers' 12-second flight. So how could the shorter flight be the one that changed the world? #airplane #flying #learning #education #brainfood

In September 1783 at Versailles, the first passengers ever to ride a hot-air balloon were a sheep, a rooster and a duck. So who got to fly in a balloon before any person did? #baloon #flying #france #learning #education #brainfood

More than 1,100 years ago in Córdoba, Abbas ibn Firnas strapped on feathered wings and jumped. So why did it take another thousand years to build a flying machine that truly worked? #airplanes #flying #learning #education #brainfood

In 1894, the Stephens Island wren was discovered on a small island in New Zealand. Within a few years, it was gone. Legend blames a single cat: the lighthouse keeper's. So could one cat really wipe out a whole species? #cats #wren #lighthouse #learning #education #brainfood

In 1890, a shipment from Egypt reached Liverpool, and it was full of cat mummies: about 180,000 of them, from an ancient cemetery at Beni Hasan. So why did the Egyptians mummify so many cats in the first place? #cats #mummies #fertilizer #learn #education #brainfood

About 9,500 years ago on Cyprus, people buried a wildcat just 40 cm from a person. Not a fluffy pet: a born hunter, bigger than the cats we know. So how did a wild hunter end up asleep on the end of your bed? #history #cats