Branches of Mathematics

Pure mathematics

• Algebra
• Calculus
• Geometry
• Topology
• Trignometry
• Combinatorics
• Logic
• Number theory

Applied mathematics

• Dynamical systems and differential equations
• Mathematical physics
• Computing
• Information theory and signal processing
• Probability and statistics
• Game theory
• Operations research

Related Topics

• Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Linear Equations
• Applied Physics
• Nano Technology
• Engineering Sciences
• Mathematical Medicine
• Fluid dynamics
• Computational Mathematics
• Gamma Ray Optics
• Onfrared Optics
• Relative Velocity
• Iciam
• Intelligent Imaging Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering
• Neuroscience Research
• Quantum Cosmology
• Brain Research

• Adler Planetarium
• Anamorphosis
• Anthony Aveni
• Anthony Horowitz
• Anthropologist
• Archaeoastronomy
• Archaeologist
• Archeologist
• Art historian
• Astronomy
• Cahokia
• Caral
• Carbon-dated
• Chan Chan
• Chavín de Huantar
• Climate of Peru
• Cosmology
• Cusco
• Declinations
• Deforestation
• Egypt
• Erich von Däniken
• Erosion
• Ethnographic
• Ethnologist
• Fantasy
• Fish
• Flower
• Geoglyph
• Gerald Hawkins
• Historical
• Hot air balloon
• Hummingbirds
• Indigenous peoples
• Iron oxide
• Jacquetta Hawkes
• Joe Nickell
• Johan Reinhard
• Lima
• Lizard
• Llamas
• Loom
• Machu Picchu
• Manú National Park
• Maria Reiche
• Marilyn Bridges
• Middle East
• Monkey
• Mummies
• Nazca
• Nazca culture
• Nazca Lines
• Nazca Province
• Observatory
• Orca
• Orion's Belt
• Palpa, Peru
• Pampas
• Pan-American Highway
• Paracas culture
• Paul Kosok
• Peru
• Pollution
• Ritual
• Runway
• Shark
• Simone Waisbard
• Spider
• SPOT Satellite
• Star
• Stonehenge
• Swiss
• Textile
• The Power of Five
• Toribio Mejia Xesspe
• Tourism in Peru
• Tree
• UNESCO
• World Heritage Site
• Yamagata University
• Zoomorphic
• 
  

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  Caral
  Caral, or Caral-Supe, was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe, Barranca province, Peru, some 200 km north of Lima. Caral is the most ancient city of the Americas, and is a well-studied site of the Caral civilization or Norte Chico civilization.
  Caral was inhabited between roughly 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE, enclosing an area of more than 60 hectares. Caral was described by its excavators as the oldest urban center in the Americas, a claim that was later challenged as other ancient sites were found nearby. Accommodating more than 3,000 inhabitants, it is the best studied and one of the largest Norte Chico sites known.
  Paul Kosok discovered Caral in 1948, but it received little attention until recently because it appeared to lack many typical artifacts that were sought at archeological sites throughout the Andes at the time. Archaeologist Ruth Shady further explored the 5,000 year-old city of pyramids in the Peruvian desert, with its elaborate complex of temples, an amphitheater and ordinary houses. The urban complex is spread out over 150 acres (607,000 m²) and contains plazas and residential buildings. Caral was a thriving metropolis at roughly the same time that Egypt's great pyramids were being built.
  
  wn.com/Caral
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  Chan Chan
  Coordinates: 8°6′38″S 79°4′30″W / 8.11056°S 79.075°W / -8.11056; -79.075
  
  The largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, Chan Chan is an archaeological site located in the Peruvian region of La Libertad, five km west of Trujillo. Chan Chan covers an area of approximately 20 km² and had a dense urban center of about 6 km². Chan Chan was constructed by the Chimor (the kingdom of the Chimú), a late intermediate period civilization which grew out of the remnants of the Moche civilization. The vast adobe city of Chan Chan was built by the Chimu around AD 850 and lasted until its conquest by the Inca Empire in AD 1470. It was the imperial capital of the Chimor until it was conquered in the 15th century. It is estimated that around 30,000 people lived in the city of Chan Chan.
  Chan Chan was added as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. The city is severely threatened by storms from El Niño, which cause heavy rains and flooding on the Peruvian coast. It is in a fertile, well-watered section of the coastal plain. The city's ruins are additionally threatened by earthquakes and looters. Present-day visitors to Chan Chan can enter the Tschudi Complex, believed to be one of the later citadels built in the city. There are also several other Chimú and Moche ruins in the area around Trujillo. This site was discovered by the Conquistador Francisco Pizarro.
  
  wn.com/Chan_Chan
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  Chavín de Huantar
  Coordinates: 9°35′33.99″S 77°10′42.43″W / 9.592775°S 77.1784528°W / -9.592775; -77.1784528
  Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological site containing ruins and artifacts constructed beginning at least by 1200 BCE and occupied by later cultures until around 400-500 BCE by the Chavín, a major pre-Inca culture. The site is located 250 kilometers (160 mi) north of Lima, Peru, at an elevation of 3,180 meters (10,430 ft), east of the Cordillera Blanca at the start of the Conchucos Valley. Chavín de Huántar has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some of the Chavín relics from this archaeological site are on display in the Museo de la Nación in Lima and the Museo Nacional de Chavín in Chavin itself.
  Occupation at Chavín de Huántar has been carbon dated to at least 3000 BCE, with ceremonial center activity occurring primarily toward the end of the second millennium, and through the middle of the first millennium BCE. While the fairly large population was based on an agricultural economy, the city's location at the headwaters of the Marañón River, between the coast and the jungle, made it an ideal location for the dissemination and collection of both ideas and material goods. This archeological site is a large ceremonial center that has revealed a great deal about the Chavín culture. Chavín de Huántar served as a gathering place for people of the region to come together and worship. The transformation of the center into a valley-dominating monument had a complex effect; it became a pan-regional place of importance. People went to Chavin de Huantar as a center: to attend and participate in rituals, consult an oracle, or enter a cult.
  
  wn.com/Chavín_de_Huantar
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  Cusco
  Cusco ( /ˈkuːzkoʊ/), often spelled Cuzco (Spanish: Cuzco, IPA: [ˈkuθko] or [ˈkusko]; Quechua: Qusqu or Qosqo, IPA: [ˈqɔsqɔ]), is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago. Located on the eastern end of the Knot of Cuzco, its elevation is around 3,400 m (11,200 ft).
  Cusco was the site of the historic capital of the Inca Empire and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. It is a major tourist destination and receives almost 2 million visitors a year. It is designated as the Historical Capital of Peru by the Constitution of Peru.
  The aboriginal name of this city was Qusqu. Although it was used in Quechua, its origin has been found in the Aymara language. The word itself originated in the phrase qusqu wanka ('Rock of the owl'), attending to the foundational myth of the Ayar Siblings. According to this legend, Ayar Auca (Ayar Awqa) got wings and flew to the site of the future city and transformed into a rock to mark the possession of the land by his ayllu ('linage').
  
  wn.com/Cusco
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  Egypt
  Egypt ⁱ/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic:  جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
  Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
  
  wn.com/Egypt
• 
  Lima
  Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima Metropolitan Area. With a population approaching 9 million, Lima is the fifth largest city in Latin America, behind Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Lima is home to one of the largest financial hubs in Latin America. It has been defined as a beta world city by GaWC international ranking.
  Lima was founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, as la Ciudad de los Reyes, or "the City of Kings". It became the capital and most important city in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. Following the Peruvian War of Independence, it became the capital of the Republic of Peru. Today, around one-third of the Peruvian population lives in the metropolitan area.
  Lima is home to one of the oldest higher learning institutions in the New World. The National University of San Marcos, founded on May 12, 1551 during Spanish colonial regime, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the Americas.
  
  wn.com/Lima
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  Machu Picchu
  Machu Picchu (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmatʃu ˈpitʃu], Quechua: Machu Pikchu [ˈmɑtʃu ˈpixtʃu], "Old Peak") is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site located 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) above sea level. Machu Picchu is located in the Cusco Region of Peru, South America. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World.
  The Incas started building the "estate" around 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally looked like. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored. The restoration work continues to this day.
  
  wn.com/Machu_Picchu
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  Nazca
  Nazca (sometimes spelled Nasca) is a city and a system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru, and the name of the region's largest existing town in the Nazca Province. It is also the name applied to the Nazca culture that flourished in the area between 300 BC and AD 800. They were responsible for the Nazca Lines and the ceremonial city of Cahuachi; they also constructed an impressive system of underground aqueducts named Puquios, that still function today.
  The city of Nazca is capital of the Nazca Province of the Ica region.
  On 12 November 1996 at 11:59 a.m. local time (16:59 GMT time) a heavy earthquake of 6.4 (the center of the earthquake was 7.7 in the sea) destroyed the city of Nasca and its surroundings almost completely. Because it occurred during the day there were only 17 fatalities, but 1,500 people were injured and around 100,000 left homeless. Almost all old houses in bricks were destroyed, but within 12 years Nasca has been completely rebuilt in colored houses with columns, now often multi-stored houses, with a small boulevard in the center.
  
  wn.com/Nazca
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  Nazca Lines
  Coordinates: 14°43′00″S 75°08′00″W / 14.7166667°S 75.1333333°W / -14.7166667; -75.1333333
  The Nazca Lines /ˈnæzkə/ are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana about 400 km south of Lima. Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD. The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas, llamas, and lizards.
  The lines are shallow designs made in the ground by removing the reddish pebbles and uncovering the whitish/grayish ground beneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes; more than seventy are zoomorphic designs of animals such as birds, fish, llamas, jaguar, monkey, or human figures. Other designs include phytomorphic shapes such as trees and flowers. The largest figures are over 200 metres (660 ft) across. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general they ascribe religious significance to them.
  
  wn.com/Nazca_Lines
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  Nazca Province
  The Nazca Province (Spanish: Provincia de Nazca) is one of five provinces of the Ica Region of Peru. The capital of the province is the city of Nazca.
  The Nasca Province is divided into five districts (Spanish: distritos, singular: distrito), each of which is headed by a mayor (alcalde):
  
  
  
  wn.com/Nazca_Province
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  Pampas
  The Pampas (from Quechua pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American lowlands, covering more than 750,000 km² (289,577 sq mi), that include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Córdoba, most of Uruguay, and the southernmost Brazilian State, Rio Grande do Sul. These vast plains are a natural region only interrupted by the low Ventana and Tandil hills near Bahía Blanca and Tandil (Argentina), with a height of 1,300 m (4,265 ft) and 500 m (1,640 ft) respectively. The climate is mild, with precipitation of 600 mm (23.6 in) to 1,200 mm (47.2 in), more or less evenly distributed through the year, making the soils appropriate for agriculture. This area is also one of the distinct physiography provinces of the larger Paraná-Paraguay Plain division. These plains contain unique wildlife because of the different terrains around it. Some of this wildlife includes the rhea, the pampas deer, several species of armadillos, the pampas fox, the White-eared opossum, the Elegant Crested Tinamou, and several other species.
  
  wn.com/Pampas
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  Peru
  Peru ⁱ/pəˈruː/ (Spanish: Perú; Quechua: Perú;Aymara: Piruw), officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish: República del Perú, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðel peˈɾu] ( listen)), is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.
  Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures, spanning from the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty, which included most of its South American colonies. After achieving independence in 1821, Peru has undergone periods of political unrest and fiscal crisis as well as periods of stability and economic upswing.
  Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. Its geography varies from the arid plains of the Pacific coast to the peaks of the Andes Mountains and the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin. It is a developing country with a high Human Development Index score and a poverty level around 31%. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing of products such as textiles.
  
  wn.com/Peru
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  Stonehenge
  Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 2.0 miles (3.2 km) west of Amesbury and 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks. It is at the centre of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.
  Archaeologists believe the iconic stone monument was constructed anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC, as described in the chronology below. Radiocarbon dating in 2008 suggested that the first stones were erected in 2400–2200 BC, whilst another theory suggests that bluestones may have been erected at the site as early as 3000 BC (see phase 1 below).
  The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury Henge monument. It is a national legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.
  
  wn.com/Stonehenge
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  Yamagata University
  Yamagata University (山形大学, Yamagata daigaku^?) is a national university located in the Japanese cities of Yamagata, Yonezawa and Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture.
  The university was established in 1949 but its origin can be traced back to the Yamagata Normal School (山形師範学校, Yamagata Shihan Gakkō^?), a public teacher-training institution, founded in 1878 in Yamagata City. The university also has other roots: the Yonezawa Higher Technical School (米沢高等工業学校, Yonezawa Kōtō Kōgyō Gakkō^?) founded in 1910 in Yonezawa City, the Yamagata Higher School (山形高等学校, Yamagata Kōtō Gakkō^?) founded in 1920 in Yamagata City, the Yamagata Youth Normal School (山形青年師範学校, Yamagata Seinen Shihan Gakkō^?) founded in 1922 in Yamagata City, and the Yamagata Prefectural Agricultural College (山形県立農林専門学校, Yamagata Kenritsu Nōrin Senmon Gakkō^?) founded in 1947 in Tsuruoka City.
  Yamagata University is the second largest university in the Tohoku Region. The university has six faculties and about 10,000 students in four campuses. It also has an additional sub-campus in which University K-9 schools are administered.
  
  wn.com/Yamagata_University

• Anthony Aveni
  Anthony Francis Aveni (born 1938) is an American academic anthropologist, astronomer, and author, noted in particular for his extensive publications and leading contributions to the field of archaeoastronomy. With an academic career spanning over four decades, Aveni is recognized for his influence on the development of archaeoastronomy as a discipline in the latter 20th century. He has specialized in the study of ancient astronomical practices in the Americas, and is one of the founders of research into the historical astronomy of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. As of 2009^[update] Aveni holds an endowed chair as the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology and Native American Studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. With his artist wife Lorraine, he currently resides in Hamilton, New York. His books: Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy Scholastic, 2005. The First Americans: Where They Came From and Who They Became Scholastic, 2005. The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript (2006)
  
  wn.com/Anthony_Aveni
• Anthony Horowitz
  Anthony Horowitz (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels for the ITV series. He is the creator and writer of the ITV series Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders and Collision.
  Anthony Horowitz was born in 1955 in Middlesex, into a wealthy French Jewish family, and in his early years lived an upper-class lifestyle. As an overweight and unhappy child, Horowitz enjoyed reading books from his father's library. At the age of eight, Horowitz was sent to the boarding school Orley Farm in Harrow, Middlesex. There, he entertained his peers by telling them the stories he had read. Horowitz described his time in the school as "a brutal experience", recalling that he was often beaten by the headmaster.
  Horowitz's father acted as a "fixer" for prime minister Harold Wilson. Facing bankruptcy, he moved his assets into Swiss numbered bank accounts. He died from cancer when his son Anthony was 22, and the family was never able to track down the missing money despite years of trying. Horowitz adored his mother, who introduced him to Frankenstein and Dracula. She also gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. Horowitz said in an interview that it reminds him to get to the end of each story since he will soon look like the skull. From the age of eight, Horowitz knew he wanted to be a writer, realising "the only time when I'm totally happy is when I'm writing". He graduated from the University of York with a BA in English literature in 1977.
  
  wn.com/Anthony_Horowitz
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  Erich von Däniken
  Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (/ˈɛrɨk vɒn ˈdænɨkɨn/; born 14 April 1935 in Zofingen, Aargau) is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968. Däniken is one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the "paleo-contact" and ancient astronaut hypotheses.
  Däniken is a co-founder of the Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI Research Association (AAS RA), and designed the theme park Mystery Park in Interlaken, Switzerland, that first opened on 23 May 2003. Däniken's first book, Chariots of the Gods?, was an immediate best seller in the United States, Europe and India, with subsequent books "according to von Däniken, have been translated into 32 languages and together have sold more than 63 million copies."
  His ideas are largely rejected by scientists and academics, who categorize his work as pseudohistory and pseudoarchaeology.
  Von Däniken was raised a strict Catholic, and attended the international Catholic school Saint-Michel in Fribourg, Switzerland. During his time at the school he rejected the church's interpretations of the Bible, and developed an interest in astronomy and the phenomenon of flying saucers.
  
  wn.com/Erich_von_Däniken
• Gerald Hawkins
  Gerald Stanley Hawkins (1928–2003) was an English astronomer and author most famous for his work in the field of archaeoastronomy. A professor and chair of the astronomy department at Boston University in the United States. In 1965 he published an analysis of Stonehenge in which he was the first to propose its purpose as an ancient astronomical observatory used to predict movements of sun and stars. Archaeologists and other scholars have since demonstrated such sophisticated, complex planning and construction at other prehistoric earthwork sites, such as Cahokia in the United States.
  Gerald Hawkins was born in Great Yarmouth and studied physics and mathematics at the University of Nottingham. In 1952 he took a PhD in radio astronomy, studying under Sir Bernard Lovell at the University of Manchester.
  In 1957 Hawkins became professor of astronomy and chairman of the department at Boston University in the United States. He wrote widely on numerous subjects, including tektites, meteors and the steady-state universe theory.
  
  wn.com/Gerald_Hawkins
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  Indigenous peoples
  Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as "indigenous" according to one of the various definitions of the term, though there is no universally accepted definition.
  In the late twentieth century, the term began to be used primarily to refer to ethnic groups that have historical ties to groups that existed in a territory prior to colonization or formation of a nation state, and which normally preserve a degree of cultural and political separation from the mainstream culture and political system of the nation state within the border of which the indigenous group is located. The political sense of the term defines these groups as particularly vulnerable to exploitation and oppression by nation states. As a result, a special set of political rights in accordance with international law have been set forth by international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank. The United Nations have issued a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and natural resources. Depending on which precise definition of "indigenous people" used, and on the census, estimates of a world total population of Indigenous people range from 220 million Indigenous peoples in 1997 to 350 million in 2004.
  
  wn.com/Indigenous_peoples
• Jacquetta Hawkes
  Jacquetta Hawkes (5 August 1910 – 18 March 1996) was a British archaeologist.
  Born Jessie Jacquetta Hopkins, the daughter of Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, she married first Christopher Hawkes, then an Assistant Keeper at the British Museum, in 1933. From 1953, she was married to J. B. Priestley. She is perhaps best known generally for her book A Land (1951). She was a prolific writer on subjects quite removed from her principal field. She was above all interested in discovering the lives of the peoples revealed by scientific excavations. With her first husband, Christopher Hawkes, she co-authored Prehistoric Britain (1943) and with J. B. Priestley she wrote Dragon's Mouth (1952) and Journey Down a Rainbow (1955). Her other works include The World of the Past (1963), "Prehistory (History of Mankind: Cultural and Scientific Development, Volume 1 Part 1)" (1963) prepared under the auspices of UNESCO, The Atlas of Early Man (1976) and The Shell Guide to British Archaeology (1986).
  
  wn.com/Jacquetta_Hawkes
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  Joe Nickell
  Joe Nickell (born December 1, 1944) is a prominent skeptical investigator of the paranormal. He also works as an historical document consultant and has helped expose such famous forgeries as the purported diary of Jack the Ripper. In 2002 he was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to evaluate for authenticity the manuscript of Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative (1853–1860), possibly the first novel by an African-American woman.
  Nickell is Senior Research Fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and writes regularly for their journal, the Skeptical Inquirer. He is also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He is the author or editor of numerous books.
  Nickell holds B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kentucky. His Ph.D. is in English for graduate work focusing on literary investigation and folklore.
  Nickell has worked professionally as a stage magician, carnival pitchman, private detective, blackjack dealer, riverboat manager, university instructor, author, and paranormal investigator, as well as listing over 200 "personas" on his website.
  
  wn.com/Joe_Nickell
• Johan Reinhard
  Dr. Johan Reinhard is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at The Mountain Institute, West Virginia, a Visiting Professor at Catholic University, Salta, Argentina, and an Honorary Professor of Catholic University, Arequipa, Peru. [1]
  
  wn.com/Johan_Reinhard
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  Maria Reiche
  Maria Reiche (1903–1998) was a German-born mathematician, archaeologist, and technical translator who is notable for her research in the Nazca Lines in Peru, beginning in 1940, and her success in gaining recognition and preservation of the property. She helped educate people about the resource and gain government recognition and preservation. In 1995 the Nazca Lines were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  Maria Reiche was born May 15, 1903 in Dresden. She studied mathematics, astronomy, geography and foreign languages at the Dresden Technical University.
  In 1932 she began work as a nanny and teacher for the children of a German consul in Cuzco, Peru. In 1934 she lost one of her fingers to gangrene.
  The same year she became a teacher in Lima and made scientific translations, as she spoke five languages. When World War II broke out, German citizens were detained in Peru.
  In 1940 Reiche became an assistant to the American Paul Kosok, an historian from Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York. Making field studies from 1939-1941 and 1948-49, he is credited as the first Westerner of European descent to seriously investigate the Nazca Lines. He originally studied them in connection with field work on ancient irrigation systems, but quickly concluded they had another purpose.
  
  wn.com/Maria_Reiche
• Marilyn Bridges
  Marilyn Bridges (born, 26 December 1948) is an American photographer noted for her aerial photographs of ancient and modern landscapes of extraordinary and often religious sites.
  Bridges was born in Newark, New Jersey. She studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1979 and her Master of Fine Arts in 1981. She started her photography career by working for travel magazines in 1970 and photographing Brazil in 1972. In 1976 Bridges became interested in aerial photography when she photographed the Nazca plain, Peru.
  
  wn.com/Marilyn_Bridges
• Paul Kosok
  Paul August Kosok (b. 21 April 1896- d. 1959) , an American professor in history and government, is credited with being the first serious researcher of the Nazca Lines in Peru. His work on the lines started in 1939, when he was doing field study related to the irrigation systems of ancient cultures. This was his main research and, by the 1950s, he had done extensive mapping of ancient canals in Peru. He demonstrated the culture's sophisticated management of water to support their settlement patterns.
  Observing the Nazca Lines, he recognized that some patterns represented living creatures, and some lines related to astronomical events. His study of archeo-astronomy aspects contributed to the recognition of the lines as an important archeological resource, which Peru has protected. The Nazca Lines were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
  Kosok was born in Long Island City, New York, the son of August and Maria Kosok, immigrants from Germany. He attended public schools before going to college. He earned a doctorate in history.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Kosok
• Simone Waisbard
  Simone Waisbard was a French explorer who spent years in South and Central America, studying remnants of the many ancient civilizations and tribes that have lived there. She is the author of two books: Tiahuanaco and Les Pistes de Nazca.
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/Simone_Waisbard

• This Little Island
• Bones in Boxes
• This Crippled Devil
• Swedish Kiss
• From the Bottom of a Crevasse
• Spike Them All
• The Ghost
• Golden Sunsets
• Four Foxes
• New Volume

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• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001