Intellect PlusCards starting with M
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Mpox was named after lab monkeys, though monkeys probably are not its sourceScientists first identified the virus in 1958 after pox-like outbreaks in research monkey colonies, so it was called monkeypox. Yet the likeliest natural hosts are small African m…
Mr. Moto: The Fictional Japanese Agent Who Captivated American Readers Before the Second World WarCreated by John P. Marquand for The Saturday Evening Post, Mr. Moto was a shrewd, ruthless secret agent who appeared as a harmless, polite eccentric. While he became a cultural ph…
Mr. Olympia crowns the sport’s top professional menBodybuilding uses progressive resistance to grow muscle via hypertrophy, then shows it in judged poses for conditioning, size and presence. Novices lifting about seven hours weekl…
mRNA-1273 vaccine demonstrated 94.1% efficacy in preventing Covid-19 illnessA phase 3 randomized trial of 30,420 volunteers found that the mRNA-1273 vaccine was 94.1% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19. The study, which followed participants at …
MSN began as a dial-up service launched alongside Windows 95On August 24, 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95 and, with it, The Microsoft Network, a paid dial-up online service. Three decades later MSN is a free news portal. In between, th…
MSN Messenger: Names, Pictures and StatusA short history of MSN Messenger, from its 1999 launch to its 2013 switch-off, and the display names, pictures, personal messages and away or busy symbols that let people show a l…
MSNBC began as Microsoft's bet that television and the internet would mergeThe cable channel now called MS NOW launched in 1996 as MSNBC, a Microsoft and NBC joint venture whose name fused MSN with NBC. Its early slogan urged viewers to get connected, an…
MTV's moon landing ident aired 48 times a day until 1986At 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, MTV went on air with NASA's lunar landing photos, the flag on the Moon swapped for a flickering MTV logo. Then came the Buggles and Video Killed t…
Mu'awiya turned the caliphate into a family inheritanceThe first four caliphs after Muhammad were chosen, not born to the office. Mu'awiya, founder of the Umayyad dynasty, broke that pattern by naming his son Yazid as successor, an un…
Muay Thai fights with the art of eight limbsMuay Thai, often called Thai boxing, is a full-contact martial art of stand-up strikes, sweeps and clinch work. Its nickname, the Art of Eight Limbs, counts the fists, elbows, kne…
Much of the world's limestone is made of dead sea creaturesFor the past 540 million years, limestone has mostly been built by life: corals, shells and microscopic plankton piling up on shallow sea floors. That same rock now becomes cement…
Much of Venice stands on pilings cut from alder treesAlder wood holds up remarkably well underwater, which is why builders have used it for pier and wharf pilings for thousands of years, and why most of the piles beneath Venice came…
Much of what we know about Genghis Khan comes from a critic who knew himThe most treasured account of Genghis Khan's youth portrays him as indecisive, frightened of dogs and guilty of killing his own half-brother. Its anonymous author was plainly no f…
Mud is far more than just dirt; it is a complex, life-sustaining geological material.Often dismissed as a nuisance, mud is a sophisticated mixture of loam, silt, or clay and water. From ancient architectural marvels to the intricate burrows supporting marine ecosy…
Mudanjiang: A Chinese Railway Hub With Ancient Roots and Modern Industrial AmbitionNestled in the mountains of southeastern Heilongjiang, Mudanjiang has evolved from an ancient valley settlement into a vital international transport hub. Named for the Peony River…
Mudflat snails eat the same dung again and again, days apartOn tidal mudflats, snails swallow decaying debris, digest the protein-rich microbes living on it, and pass the rest out almost untouched. A few days later, fresh microbes have col…
Mudflows are not just wet dirt; they are powerful, fast-moving geological forces of nature.A mudflow is far more than a simple landslide. These liquified rivers of debris can travel at speeds of up to five metres per second, carrying massive boulders and scouring entire…
Mudrocks make up half of all sedimentary rocks, yet they remain geologically mysterious.These fine-grained deposits are the most widespread rocks on Earth, yet they are notoriously difficult to classify and study. From the Himalayas to the Amazon, mudrocks record the…
Mughal Bengal alone out-produced western Europe, by one estimateUnder the Mughals, the province of Bengal is said to have generated almost half the empire's output and about 12 percent of the world's, more than all of western Europe combined. …
Mughals called themselves Gurkani, not Mongols, in their own recordsOutsiders labeled Babur's dynasty "Mughal"—Indo-Persian for Mongol—yet early followers were Chagatai Turks, and the house preferred Gurkani, recalling Timur's title after marrying…
Mughals made Dhaka Bengal’s capital in 1610Dhaka is Bangladesh’s capital and largest city, a gamma+ global hub of politics and culture. Settlement reaches the first millennium; the early modern city rose in the seventeenth…
Muhammad's marriages were complex, serving as political alliances, social welfare, and personal bonds.While often viewed through a singular lens, the marriages of Muhammad were diverse in purpose. From providing security for widows in a society hyper-focused on purity to forging s…
Muhammad’s military career: A decade of campaigns that reshaped the Arabian PeninsulaBetween 622 and 632, Muhammad led a series of military expeditions that transformed the Arabian Peninsula. While often remembered for his role as a prophet, his strategic leadersh…
Mukalla: The Ancient Yemeni Seaport That Evolved From Fishing Village To Strategic HubFounded as a humble fishing settlement in 1035, Mukalla has transformed into the vital capital of Yemen's largest governorate. Its name, derived from an Arabic verb meaning to pre…
Mukden's Manchu capital still moves northeast China's freightShenyang, formerly Manchu Mukden, is Liaoning's capital and most populous city with 9,070,093 people in the 2020 census—Northeast China's largest. Ming military stronghold, then p…
Mulan's family name was not always HuaThe Ballad of Mulan never settles her surname. Later plays call her Zhu or Wei; playwright Xu Wei's "flower" Hua stuck, partly because it pairs poetically with given name Mulan—"l…
Multicellular life is a masterclass in cooperation, specialization, and the division of labor.Multicellular organisms are not just collections of cells; they are highly integrated systems where individual units surrender independence to serve the whole. By specializing in …
Multidrug therapy cut global leprosy cases below 200,000Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is a chronic infection by Mycobacterium leprae or M. lepromatosis that can damage nerves, skin, eyes, and airways. Spread needs close contact; about …
Multiple integrals stack one integral sign per variableWhen a function depends on several real inputs—say f(x,y) or f(x,y,z)—its definite integral over a region is called a multiple integral, the higher-dimensional cousin of area-unde…
Multiplication began as disciplined repeated additionAmong arithmetic’s four elementary operations, multiplication yields a product, written with a cross, a dot, juxtaposition, or a programming asterisk. For whole numbers it means a…
Multiply your berry patch for free using simple layering techniquesLearn how to expand your blackberry and loganberry harvest by creating new plants from existing ones. This guide demonstrates two straightforward propagation methods that yield re…
Multiply your indoor jungle with three simple propagation techniques from design expertsCaro Langton of the design studio Ro Co demonstrates how to propagate houseplants to expand your collection. This guide covers three accessible methods for multiplying indoor gree…
Multiplying primes is easy, and internet security depends on undoing it being hardMultiplying two large prime numbers takes a computer a moment. Working backwards to find those primes is another matter: no machine today can split a 500-digit number built from t…
Multivariable calculus extends slope and area into higher dimensionsMultivariable—or multivariate—calculus extends one-variable differentiation and integration to functions of several inputs. Gradients, partials, multiple integrals, and vector fie…
Mumbai changed its name in 1995, but its high court still says BombayThe city officially became Mumbai in 1995, yet the court at its heart never followed. A bill to rename it the Mumbai High Court, alongside new names for the Calcutta and Madras co…
Mumbai is building a massive 523-kilometre metro network to solve its transit crisisMumbai, a city of over 20 million people, is transforming its commute. To relieve its famously overcrowded suburban railway, the city is constructing a vast, multi-phase metro sys…
Mumbai's airport evolved from a World War II airfield into a global aviation hub.Once a modest collection of Royal Air Force hangars, Mumbai's airport has transformed into a high-capacity international gateway. Today, it operates as one of the world's busiest …
Mumbai's Green Line Metro: A Massive Infrastructure Project Spanning 60 Kilometers of Elevated RailThe Green Line is a sprawling Mumbai Metro project designed to decongest roads and relieve pressure on the city's suburban railway. Comprising three integrated lines, this fully e…
Mumbai's Red Line metro is a massive engineering feat connecting the city to its airport.Spanning over 31 kilometers, the Red Line is a critical artery for Mumbai, integrating elevated tracks with complex underground tunnels. This ambitious infrastructure project, fea…
Mumbai's Taj hotel holds a trademark on its own silhouetteIn 2017 the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai became the first building in India to win intellectual-property protection for its architecture, registering its look as an image trademark.…
Mumbai’s massive new coastal expressway is reshaping the city’s geography and transit futureMumbai is building a 29.2-kilometer coastal expressway to slash commute times between its southern tip and northern suburbs. This ambitious project, featuring India’s first unders…
Mumblecore: The accidental film movement that defined a generation of aimless, naturalistic cinemaBorn in a bar at the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival, mumblecore is a subgenre defined by low budgets, improvised dialogue, and the messy, unscripted lives of young adults. …
Mummification is a global phenomenon that predates the pyramids by thousands of yearsWe often associate mummies with the golden sands of Egypt, but these preserved remains appear on every continent. From deliberate burials in Southeast Asia dating back 12,000 year…
Mungo Park was the first Westerner to map the Niger, but his end was tragic.Scottish surgeon Mungo Park became a legend by exploring the Niger River in the late 18th century. His detailed travelogue captivated European readers, yet his final expedition en…- Munich 1972 aimed for cheerful optimism but ended in a historic security tragedy.The 1972 Summer Olympics were designed to showcase a democratic, peaceful Germany to the world. Organizers branded them the Cheerful Games, featuring a solar logo and sky-blue uni…
Munich's great university began in Ingolstadt and moved twice to dodge historyLMU Munich was founded in 1472 in the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt, not in Munich at all. French threats during the Napoleonic Wars pushed it to Landshut in 1800, and King Ludwig I…
Munster Rugby: How a provincial Irish team became a global giant-killing forceMunster Rugby is more than a professional team; it is a cultural institution defined by its fierce resilience. From humble amateur beginnings in 1879 to historic victories over in…- Münster: From apocalyptic Anabaptist rebellion to Germany's modern bicycle capitalMünster is a city of striking contradictions. Once the site of a radical 16th-century proto-socialist uprising where citizens were forced to live naked, it is now a peaceful, bicy…
Munster: The Irish province that once operated as a maritime empire and kingdomSpanning the southwest of Ireland, Munster is a land of ancient dynasties, Viking-founded cities, and a complex colonial past. From the rise of the Eóganachta to the establishment…
Murad IV: The Ottoman Sultan Who Restored Imperial Authority Through Extreme BrutalityAscending the throne as an eleven-year-old puppet, Murad IV eventually seized absolute power to stabilize a crumbling empire. His reign was defined by ruthless purges, the prohibi…
Murakami ran a jazz bar before his first novelHaruki Murakami, born 12 January 1949, is read in 50 languages, yet he wrote nothing at all until he was 29. He was running a Tokyo jazz bar when a baseball game sparked his first…
Murcia: The ancient orchard city that once pioneered Europe's silk and paper industriesFounded in 825 by the Emir of Cordoba, Murcia evolved from a sophisticated medieval agricultural hub into a thriving modern university city. Known as Europe's orchard, this Spanis…
Murray Gell-Mann took the word quark from a line of James JoyceWhen Murray Gell-Mann proposed in 1964 that protons and neutrons are built from smaller pieces, he needed a name. He borrowed one from Finnegans Wake: three quarks for Muster Mark…
Murray Hill: A Manhattan neighborhood defined by shifting boundaries and a legendary, disputed historyOnce a steep glacial mound, Murray Hill evolved from a merchant's 18th-century estate into a quiet enclave for the wealthy. Today, it is a vibrant, high-income neighborhood known …
Murray Rothbard called the state organised robbery and built anarcho-capitalismMurray Rothbard, an economist of the Austrian School, argued that every service the state provides, including armies, police and courts, could be delivered more efficiently by pri…
Muscle loss linked to worsening heart conditions in older adultsA review of existing research on sarcopenia—a condition marked by declining muscle strength and function—found it associated with quicker worsening of cardiovascular disease and a…
Muscle pain is rarely just about muscles, often signaling deeper systemic or lifestyle issues.Myalgia, or muscle pain, is a universal human experience, yet its origins range from simple exercise strain to complex neurological and metabolic conditions. While most cases reso…
Muscle's smallest motor unit is a striped molecular machineA sarcomere is the repeating contractile segment between two Z-lines in striated muscle. Thick myosin and thin actin filaments slide to shorten it; smooth muscle skips this lattic…
Museums were once private scholarly sanctuaries before becoming the public institutions we know todayModern museums are far more than mere repositories for pretty objects. Their evolution spans from ancient centers of academic study to the 17th-century birth of public access. Yet…
Mushroom fungi have no males or females, only compatible partnersChanterelles, puffballs, bracket fungi, crop-ruining rusts and a yeast that infects people all belong to one fungal division. Their shared signature is a club-shaped cell that fir…