Welcome back to the number one microlearning newsletter. Grab your coffee, here is your five-minute fix for learning about three new things.
📶 What Makes 5G Different?
The leap from 4G to 5G isn't just about speed but scale. While 4G could connect about 100,000 devices per square kilometer, 5G can handle up to a million, each exchanging data in real time. That's what makes "smart cities" possible, where traffic lights, ambulances, and delivery drones all communicate in milliseconds. The average 5G signal moves data ten times faster than 4G and latency has fallen from around 50 milliseconds to just 1. That's fast enough for a robotic arm in London to mimic a surgeon's hand movements in Singapore with almost no lag.
To achieve this, 5G doesn't rely on tall towers broadcasting over long distances. Instead it uses a web of "small cells," thousands of mini antennas mounted on rooftops, streetlights, and even bus stops. These use ultra-high frequency waves, which carry far more data but can be blocked by something as simple as rain or leaves. In dense cities like Seoul or Shanghai, this invisible infrastructure already hums beneath the skyline, quietly powering everything from autonomous taxis to real-time pollution sensors.
But 5G is more than technology, it's a new form of soft power. When the U.S. banned Huawei from building Western 5G systems, it wasn't just about cybersecurity but about who gets to write the next chapter of digital history. Just as railways once redrew maps and shipping lanes created empires, 5G is building the nervous system of the 21st century.
Countries with the best 5G infrastructure
🏜️ Why Deserts Form
Most of the world's great deserts sit at about 30° north and south of the equator. This is where the planet's Hadley cells, giant loops of circulating air, descend and squeeze out moisture like a wrung towel. Dry air falls from high altitudes, evaporating clouds and baking the ground below. That's why the Sahara in Africa, the Arabian Desert in the Middle East, and the Kalahari in southern Africa all line up along the same invisible belt of dryness.
Mountains can also manufacture deserts. When moist ocean air hits a mountain range, it's forced upward where it cools and releases rain on one side while leaving the other parched. This "rain shadow" effect created the Atacama Desert in Chile, one of the driest places on Earth which hasn’t seen a drop of rain in 500 years. Even the Gobi Desert in Mongolia owes its existence to the Himalayas blocking monsoon winds from ever reaching it.
Deserts are anything but lifeless. Beneath the dunes of the Sahara lie ancient riverbeds and massive aquifers with enough water to fill Lake Erie. Fossil evidence shows it was once a green savanna full of giraffes and crocodiles before a tilt in Earth's axis shifted the rains away. Deserts, in other words, are never permanent. They breathe in millennia, expanding and shrinking as the planet tilts, cools, and warms.
Map of the world’s deserts
♟️ How Chess Originated in India
Chess began as chaturanga, an ancient Indian board game from around the 6th century CE. It was played on an 8x8 grid that mirrored the Indian army. Its name meant "four divisions of the military," elephants, chariots, cavalry, and infantry. Ancient texts describe generals and princes using it as a training ground for strategy, a safe space to test ambition, deception, and foresight before the real battlefield.
As the game spread along trade routes to Persia, it evolved into shatranj. The Persian word "shah" (king) and the phrase "shah mat" (the king is dead) gave rise to checkmate. The Arabs carried it westward after their conquest of Persia. By the time it reached medieval Europe, the pieces and rules had changed to reflect Western society. The powerful "queen" emerged in the 15th century, a uniquely European addition that historians link to the rise of strong female monarchs like Isabella of Castile. Centuries later, chess became the game of emperors and ideologues. Napoleon studied it before battle, Stalin used it as propaganda for Soviet intellect, and in 1972 Bobby Fischer's match against Boris Spassky turned into a Cold War showdown watched by millions.
Modern chess was born from this mix of cultures, languages, and power structures. What started as a military simulation in India became a global metaphor for human ambition and intellect. Every game played today carries that legacy, a 1,500-year-old conversation between warriors, philosophers, and dreamers about how to win without fighting.
1972 World Chess Championship, where American Bobby Fischer defeated Soviet Boris Spassky
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