Mark Mancini

Mark Mancini

Contributing Writer

Mark Mancini is a freelance writer currently based in New Jersey. Over the years, he’s covered every subject from classic horror movies to Abe Lincoln's favorite jokes. He is particularly fond of paleontology and has been reporting on new developments in this field since 2013. When Mark's not at his writing desk, you can usually find him on stage somewhere because he loves to get involved with community theater. And if you ever feel like trading puns for a few hours, he's your guy.

Recent Contributions

From Isaac Newton to Ivan Pavlov, scientists have developed and tested hypotheses through carefully crafted experiments for centuries. Here are three groundbreaking hypotheses and the predictions they tested.

By Mark Mancini

You may never see it happen live, but if you do, consider yourself lucky. Because this meteorological phenomenon doesn't happen very often.

By Mark Mancini

Not all diamonds are found on dry land. Many turn up in sediments below the ocean's surface. You just have to know where to look.

By Mark Mancini

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Sand turned to glass at White Sands Missile Range. What do we know today about the remnants of the world's first nuclear blast?

By Mark Mancini

Autopsies have been around since ancient times, but they seem so shrouded in secrecy. What goes on when a corpse goes under the knife?

By Mark Mancini

It can definitely be done — we saw Capt. Sully Sullenberger successfully land an Airbus A320 without any engines, in the Hudson River no less. But just how far a plane can fly without its engines depends on a few different factors.

By Mark Mancini

Many people get speed and velocity confused. It's no surprise because the terms are often used interchangeably. But they're not quite the same thing. So how do you find the velocity of an object?

By Mark Mancini

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Since it launched Aug. 12, 2018, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has made 11 of the 24 planned approaches with the sun, analyzing the massive star's solar wind and magnetic fields. But just how close will it get to our solar system's massive star?

By Mark Mancini

Since its inception in the late '50s, NASA has accomplished some amazing technical feats. But what are some of the agency's greatest moments?

By Julia Layton & Mark Mancini

The simple explanation is you have to be in just the right spot and the conditions have to be perfect for you to see the entire 360 degrees.

By Mark Mancini

The ocean is so deep, it puts the height of Mount Everest to shame.

By Mark Mancini

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The extinct Titanoboa snake lived around 66 million to 56 million years ago. These things were massive and could reach 50 feet long and 3 feet wide making them the largest snake ever to have roamed the Earth.

By Mark Mancini & Desiree Bowie

Global warming and climate change are terms often treated like synonyms, but they have different meanings. We'll explain the difference and why both are so important to know.

By Mark Mancini

The stratosphere is one of Earth's five atmospheric layers that also includes the troposphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.

By Mark Mancini

Converting kilogram measurements into pounds is not hard. We'll show you the textbook way plus two quick-and-dirty shortcuts.

By Mark Mancini

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With a little patience, you can master this trick of converting binary code to decimals — and have fun doing it!

By Mark Mancini

Weight is the measurement of gravity's pull on an object. And it varies by location. Mass is a different beast altogether.

By Mark Mancini

The Arctic Circle is a region marked by frigid temperatures, strange sunlight and glaciers galore. And for hundreds of thousands of people, it's also home sweet home.

By Mark Mancini

Iceland? The North Pole? Antarctica? There are a lot of super cold places on this planet, but which one can claim bragging rights as the coldest place on Earth?

By Mark Mancini

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While you may not want to encounter one on a hike, there's no denying that snakes are magnificent creatures — no matter how big or small they are. But when it comes to the biggest snakes in the world, nature truly knows no bounds.

By Mark Mancini & Desiree Bowie

You can find the distance between two points by using the distance formula. It's an application of the Pythagorean theorem. Remember that from high school algebra?

By Mark Mancini & Desiree Bowie

Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation helps put the laws of gravity into a mathematical formula. And the gravitational constant is the "G" in that formula.

By Mark Mancini

If geology has taught us anything about Earth's history, it's that nothing is permanent. And that goes for mountain ranges, all of which are constantly rising and falling.

By Mark Mancini

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The Great Lakes are named so for several reasons. HowStuffWorks looks at why the Great Lakes are so great, including their impressive depths.

By Mark Mancini

Both degrees and radians represent the measure of an angle in geometry. So, how do you convert one to the other?

By Mark Mancini