Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit an old cement mine in Rosendale, New York, that has been used as everything from a mushroom farm to a recording studio. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and……
For car shoppers, parenthood means changing up that wish list. Safety becomes an even more important factor, as does convenience, and it’s through that lens that U.S. News & World Report evaluated 86 different vehicles for its list of the 2021 Best Cars for Families, released on Tuesday. “The winners of these awards have the best combination of safety, reliability, space, convenience and connectivity,” said Jamie Page Deaton, executive editor for U.S. News Best Cars. This year, Toyota won…
The coronavirus’ structure is an all-too-familiar image, with its densely packed surface receptors resembling a thorny crown. These spike-like proteins latch onto healthy cells and trigger the invasion of viral RNA. While the virus’ geometry and infection strategy is generally understood, little is known about its physical integrity. A new study by researchers in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering suggests that coronaviruses may be vulnerable to ultrasound vibrations, within the frequencies used in medical diagnostic imaging. Through computer simulations,……
As vaccines go into arms, more and more people are expected to do something they put off last year due to COVID-19: travel. According to a survey done by travel company Expedia, almost half of the 2,200 people surveyed in December said widely available vaccines would make them comfortable traveling. Forty-two percent of Americans said news about vaccines makes them more hopeful about traveling this year, with some already choosing to book trips. When people arrive at airports or…
Early each morning, keys turn in locks on the ground floor shops along Pugliano street in the Italian town of Ercolano. Doors open to reveal shiny sequin dresses, furs in a range of browns, and jeans from the 1970s—plus a slew of military uniforms, displayed on hangers, dangling from boxes, or draped on white sheets. Many of the clothes worn by American soldiers who stormed Italy in the 1940s now live here, at one of the largest markets in……
Across the globe, 26 million people have been displaced from their home countries by civil war, drought, political persecution, and other crises. At the same, attitudes against refugees are hardening in many countries; a 2018 survey found that 40 percent of Kenyans have heard that refugees are a security threat, and 45 percent don’t think refugees should be allowed to freely move around the country. In a new paper in the journal Comparative Political Studies, MIT Governance Lab (GOV/LAB)……
Andrew Christ remembers the day he became part of “this 60-year, weird, wild Cold War story.” It was 2019, and the University of Vermont researcher was just four days away from defending his dissertation. He was beyond stressed, and had better things to do than help examine an ice core sample drilled decades earlier. The core was subglacial sediment and rock, taken from below a mile of ice in 1966 at Camp Century, an American research base in Greenland……
The world’s oceans are a vast repository for gases including ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. They absorb these gases from the atmosphere and draw them down to the deep, where they can remain sequestered for centuries and more. Marine CFCs have long been used as tracers to study ocean currents, but their impact on atmospheric concentrations was assumed to be negligible. Now, MIT researchers have found the oceanic fluxes of at least one type of CFC, known as CFC-11, do……
“From the research of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, so far, one thing is absolutely clear: Technological change is transforming our work, our lives, and our society — and fortunately, the harsh societal consequences that concern us all are not inevitable,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif at the start of “From Research to Action: Work of the Future,” on Feb. 19. The event was the second in the MIT Forefront series, which seeks……
At the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, one specimen dwarfs everything else in it: a 27-and-half-meter long dinosaur skeleton. His name is officially ROM 3670, but he’s more commonly known as Gordo, and he’s the largest mounted dinosaur skeleton in Canada, rivaled only by a Futalognkosaurus installed in the lobby. However, Gordo stands out because he’s got real bones in him. Gordo is specifically a Barosaurus, one of the larger of the sauropod dinosaurs. At 66 tons, it indeed……
In considering materials that could become the fabrics of the future, scientists have largely dismissed one widely available option: polyethylene. The stuff of plastic wrap and grocery bags, polyethylene is thin and lightweight, and could keep you cooler than most textiles because it lets heat through rather than trapping it in. But polyethylene would also lock in water and sweat, as it’s unable to draw away and evaporate moisture. This antiwicking property has been a major deterrent to polyethylene’s……
Every step through the woods and meadows of Laumeier Sculpture Park reveals a new exciting discovery. A chain of giant spheres that look like a slithering extraterrestrial creature. Imposing mounds of earth that seem to have been left behind by an ancient civilization. A conglomeration of flaming-red steel oil tanks. Each piece of sculptural art scattered throughout the landscape creates a new way for visitors to experience their surroundings. Visitors are immersed in an art-filled landscape immediately upon arriving……
In the past this street was called Carrer Sant Bernat. But as popular belief spread that witches met in this odd covered passageway, the name was changed. It has an elongated layout, parallel to that of Carrer Major, with sections covered with arched vaults, and others that pass in the open air. The town of Cervera dates back to medieval times. The small settlement grew from a few houses into a fortress and neighborhoods made of terraced houses. Cervera was……
The Zoo, Groovy Yard Art is a tongue and cheek zoo that is home to information on over 25 animals. However, these animals are artistic renditions composed of various mediums. Many are crafted from some combination of metal, aluminum, and wood. As visitors walk around the art installation, information panels provide interesting facts about all of the animals, many of which have cartoon characteristics. Some of these unique artistic renditions can be purchased. A few of the features of……
Longhua Martyrs Cemetery is a memorial to those who lost their lives at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang. During the 1920s and 1930s, the site of the Longhua Martyrs Cemetery was home to the Kuomintang prison. At the prison, hundreds of communists were executed in an attempt to wipe out the communist movement. Across the cemetery are various sculptures and a Memorial Hall. The cemetery sits on the location of the actual execution grounds and visitors can still see……
