The Ruskeala marble quarry

Ruskeala is a mysterious and mountainous region located in the very heart of the Republic of Karelia. It is home to a majestic canyon edged by snow-white cliffs that once served as a marble quarry. Workers however stopped extracting this cold stone and nowadays the canyon is considered a natural site. This huge bowl, once carved out by human hands, is now half full of the purest subterranean emerald-toned waters. The old, abandoned quarry is now a destination for tourists with a scenic two-kilometre trail passing along the edge of the canyon. RTG TV host Igor Maximenko checked out this route to see what all of the hype was about. 

Now on air
03:15
The Ruskeala marble quarry
THE FOUNTAINS OF PETERHOF. PETER THE GREAT'S PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE

Having seen the gardens of the French kings, Emperor Peter the Grat wanted to create his own “Versailles”, and to even surpass it. But, in choosing the site of his future residence, he set a key condition – the water in the fountains should be “self-propelled”, through a fall in height, rather than by using expensive pumps as were employed in Versailles. Peter had begun developing this idea for a grandiose park and palace ensemble on the shores of the Finnish Gulf when he first began to fight Sweden for an outlet onto the Baltic Sea. Many of Peterhof’s fountains are dedicated to the victories of the young Russian fleet over a more experienced and powerful opponent. The main jet of water, Samson, is dedicated to the decisive battle of Poltava. The concept for the new, sumptuous residence the drafts that reveal all of its main constructions – these were all the work of Peter the G...

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03:45
THE FOUNTAINS OF PETERHOF. PETER THE GREAT'S PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE
The Tyumen cryobank — cold in the service of science

Nowadays medicine and the biological sciences would be nothing without cryogenic technologies – what is known among specialists as the freezing of cellular and genetic material. Such specimens are then preserved in cryobanks – low-temperature refrigerators which maintain these chilly temperatures with the help of liquid nitrogen. A cryobank is not merely a negative 200-degree refrigerator – it is an advanced piece of equipment developed with the help of complex high technologies. There are only about 200 of them in the whole world and one of them is in the Russian city of Tyumen. There the cryobank is used not only to store biomaterial, but as the basis for scientific research in the field of biotechnology – and scientists in Tyumen have already succeeded in making significant discoveries.

Now on air
03:30
The Tyumen cryobank — cold in the service of science