Author: Ms. R.

The Buffalo Medical College laboratory was under guard, and the few scientists permitted entrance had been ordered not to discuss the experiments underway inside. Among the most reticent of them was Dr. Herman Matzinger, who told a journalist only that he “would have no leisure from his work,” the Buffalo Courier reported. It seemed like no one had rested since President McKinley died in the early morning hours of Saturday, September 14, 1901. Eight days prior Leon Czolgosz had……

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Earth is being pummeled by meteorites daily, but most of its residents aren’t even aware. According to NASA’s planetary defense system Scout, nearly 50 tons of meteoritic matter hit the planet daily. Most small pieces are never found, but occasionally a celestial fireball pushes through the atmosphere and lands on the ground. And on January 21 outside of Berlin, Germany, that’s just what happened. A meteorite on a wayward journey from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter shattered……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit Moynaq, a city in Uzbekistan that was once a port on one of the world’s largest seas. Now it’s a dusty reminder of one of the largest and most forgotten environmental disasters. Visit the Stihia website to learn more about the music festival that happens in Moynaq, including where it may be this year. And this……

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This story was originally published on The Conversation. It appears here under a Creative Commons license. “We got down from the car and went inside.” “I made the line to pay for groceries.” “He made a party to celebrate his son’s birthday.” These phrases might sound off to the ears of most English-speaking Americans. In Miami, however, they’ve become part of the local parlance. According to my recently published research, these expressions—along with a host of others—form part of……

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There are things you expect to see on a trip to San Francisco: you might root for the Giants at Oracle Park, you might browse the stacks at historic City Lights Books, you might climb so many of the city’s historic staircases that you’ve done your cardio for the whole year. What you wouldn’t expect is to stroll through SF’s massive Golden Gate Park and catch a glimpse of… a herd of bison? But that’s exactly what people have……

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When you think of enormous living things, you might think of a giraffe, an elephant, a hundred-foot blue whale, or that terrifying bug you just saw that really shouldn’t be so big. But in fact, the largest living organism, if we’re measuring by volume, is a tree. Specifically, it’s the General Sherman Tree in California’s Sequoia National Park, an hour and a half drive from Fresno. At 275 feet tall, the General Sherman Tree is as tall as three……

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