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2026-01-27T12:30:00-05:00
80% of Americans may opt for cremation by 2045
The post 80% of Americans may opt for cremation by 2045 appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/health/cremation-popularity-america/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…n.jpg?quality=85
6af2f2070a6d79b6c8fc4dd4f1d65cc8b8037f9a97f2a1e564eba594db81833c
2026-01-27T11:18:28-05:00
The most dangerous type of precipitation isn’t snow
The post The most dangerous type of precipitation isn’t snow appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/science/sleet-freezing-rain-difference-podcast/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…t.jpg?quality=85
933a02deba1eaaee48ebc854e8cbd242667068502b2582ce332deacbec662f8e
2026-01-27T10:00:46-05:00
This odd vine contradicts long-standing evolutionary theory
The post This odd vine contradicts long-standing evolutionary theory appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/science/lipstick-vine-evolution/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…n.jpg?quality=85
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2026-01-27T09:01:00-05:00
What’s a false memory? Psychologists explain how your brain can lie.
The post What’s a false memory? Psychologists explain how your brain can lie. appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/health/false-memories-explained/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…y.jpg?quality=85
790c5c5761610e734d92915695db6531ec8cf5e3cff002ad56079f20b2e3c548
2026-01-26T15:59:00-05:00
New whitening powder activates with your electric toothbrush
The post New whitening powder activates with your electric toothbrush appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/health/teeth-whitening-electic-toothbrush/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…h.jpg?quality=85
509947803678ea645876a6eb54bd2404954c51ce4190cbadd272958b89dce95a
2026-01-26T14:17:59-05:00
Mysterious, numbered mollusk discovered on Australian beach
The post Mysterious, numbered mollusk discovered on Australian beach appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/numbered-mollusk-discovery-australia/
Science
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c10def1162d984b4b9a1a8ac7ea2f2f77a0204294d87b0ed252ce0852f8e73fa
2026-01-26T13:43:30-05:00
Stock up on ReadyWise emergency food supplies during this Walmart flash clearance sale
The post Stock up on ReadyWise emergency food supplies during this Walmart flash clearance sale appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/gear/readywise-emergency-food-supply-walmart-flash-deal/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…r.jpg?quality=85
70f6c6b8ce6b24ef313b88c27f389e64a3bfc57e89c41a3b6f9f625b02b579cf
2026-01-26T11:34:11-05:00
Gaze into the Milky Way’s black hole with NASA’s ‘back catalog’ of X-ray data
The post Gaze into the Milky Way’s black hole with NASA’s ‘back catalog’ of X-ray data appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/science/nasa-chandra-back-catalog/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w….jpeg?quality=85
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2026-01-26T10:01:00-05:00
We may not have flying cars, but we have flying umbrellas
The post We may not have flying cars, but we have flying umbrellas appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/diy/drone-umbrella/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…3.jpg?quality=85
7c6b980def1b30b7dc96434afc5560cb2981c75633ff89019a81d0cb3039e7a3
2026-01-26T09:18:05-05:00
Bald eagle chick watch 2026: Jackie lays first eggs
The post Bald eagle chick watch 2026: Jackie lays first eggs appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/bald-eagle-jackie-lays-first-egg-2026/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…g.jpg?quality=85
86e8ef43a4780ba2bb0df45b1cccb48eb3624704fc094bf079150955bdfeb371
2026-01-26T09:00:00-05:00
Babysitting grandkids can boost brain health
The post Babysitting grandkids can boost brain health appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/health/babysitting-grandkids-good-for-brain/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…s.png?quality=85
54e39fb3dd011082ca6b62df4683ad0ca7fe29369887b847fd1f2bda9e6dd96d
2026-01-25T21:39:54-05:00
REI is blowing out its branded jackets, fleeces pants, and more for clearance prices during this winter sale
The post REI is blowing out its branded jackets, fleeces pants, and more for clearance prices during this winter sale appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/gear/rei-coop-in-house-jacket-fleece-pants-gear-deals/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…6.jpg?quality=85
47f75134f10a2b2f6c543e2736748065838daf04dd45f9465e3def50989499be
2026-01-25T14:15:00-05:00
‘Walking sharks’ lay eggs without breaking a sweat
The post ‘Walking sharks’ lay eggs without breaking a sweat appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/walking-shark-eggs-reproduction/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…k.png?quality=85
2344973071a7b62231b0cc4e2373c66ced2b8bedee2af8e8afa7aba7f7a0102a
2026-01-25T10:18:00-05:00
Snowed in? Watch albatrosses nest on a sunny Pacific island instead
The post Snowed in? Watch albatrosses nest on a sunny Pacific island instead appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/albatross-livestream/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…s.png?quality=85
a3460911fc1587cebcfefdc99ca260128c91dad4415882148d7e0b20f6ed8443
2026-01-25T08:00:00-05:00
Should you eat invasive species? We asked an ecologist.
The post Should you eat invasive species? We asked an ecologist. appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/eat-invasive-species/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…e.jpg?quality=85
95bac0363d844c4ff747eaa50fb87149d1bd516d32f83c46077021954088e5c1
2026-01-24T19:59:11-05:00
Amazon just dropped this $300 Ninja indoor grill/air fryer down to $150 on clearance
The post Amazon just dropped this $300 Ninja indoor grill/air fryer down to $150 on clearance appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/gear/ninja-indoor-grill-air-fryer-half-price-deal-amazon/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…r.jpg?quality=85
89b00f68f2334e6baf33e792983acc26511ad40a0bc05d1495c3a4498a3d4ee2
2026-01-24T13:00:00-05:00
How to stop annoying spam calls
The post How to stop annoying spam calls appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/diy/how-to-stop-spam-calls/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…s.jpg?quality=85
e44f605495976b42c30078450d534cd4da312a7d88228c975c8c7371799e0d69
2026-01-24T10:13:00-05:00
Perplexing blue button jelly looks like something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’
The post Perplexing blue button jelly looks like something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’ appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/blue-button-jellyfish/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…y.png?quality=85
f9a80f2a68c938140b76be1cecf128f86b6367f3fc0f2512f846aa639594b8b4
2026-01-24T08:00:00-05:00
This AI thinks it’s the 1800s
The post This AI thinks it’s the 1800s appeared first on Popular Science.
https://www.popsci.com/technology/this-ai-thinks-its-the-1800s/
Science
https://www.popsci.com/w…9.jpg?quality=85
dfda11bf36053972f4a4737ab522c0dec300d58eb8e25879bad0225ebf483948
2026-02-01T10:00:00-05:00
‘The Scream’ View in Oslo, Norway
“My companions went onward, and I remained behind, trembling with dread—and I felt as though a great, boundless scream passed through nature.” — Edvard Munch, 1892 Before The Scream became the iconic image we know today, Munch first tried to capture his experience in words. In the winter of 1892, he recorded this poem in his diary after walking along this hillside road with friends: I walked along the road with two companions — then the sun went down. The sky was suddenly turned to blood-red — I halted, leaned upon the railing, weary unto death — over the blue-black fjord and town there lay blood and tongues of fire. My companions went onward, and I remained behind, trembling with dread — and I felt as though a great, boundless scream passed through Nature. Munch often wandered this area, now part of the suburb of Bekkelaget, and repeatedly returned to its landscapes in both writing and paint. Although the first version of The Scream was completed in Berlin, there is little doubt about the source of its haunting background: the view from the slopes of Ekeberg overlooking Oslo and the fjord. His deep attachment to nature, combined with lifelong anxiety and a family history of mental illness, likely shaped the emotional force of the painting. Around the time he wrote the diary entry, Munch’s manic depressive sister Laura — was being treated in various psychiatric institutions, eventually becoming a patient at Oslo Hospital, located at the foot of Ekeberg hill, just below the view point. Located southeast of Oslo’s city center, Ekebergskrenten is easy to reach. Just 15 minutes with public transportation from downtown. Two bus lines service the area, the closest stop is only 200 meters away.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-scream-view
Science
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2026-01-31T16:00:00-05:00
Garching Maypole in Garching bei München, Germany
The Bavarian maypole is an age old tradition going back for centuries, originally erected as a symbol for all that grows and bears fruit but now is a symbol of wealth and pride for the community that sets it up. The tradition dates back to the 13th century and ever since each community tried to outdo the others by erecting the tallest and straightest maypole. The associations that make them scout for the best trees weeks in advance, fell them and hide it away. The pole is then decorated with Bavarian colors and little signs on each side that denote what the community is proud of. This can be monuments, certain shops and even things like a recent metro station. The poles get erected on the first of May during a large spring festival where the pole gets hoisted up by hand to proclaim the greatness of the location. However neighboring communities often try to steal their rivals’ pole, which is not illigal but also part of the tradition. Because if they manage, they can ransom the pole for technically anything they want, usually large quantities of beer and food. The most amazing maypole theft ever was in 2004 in Zugspitze, where a daring Bavarian stole a 20m maypole with a helicopter, flying it to an Alpine hut where a ransom was set.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/munich-maypole
Science
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bd5ec252ca834997aa738dd534563356a2fe507260c9cbdb1fc8fc78afbbfe2e
2026-01-30T16:00:00-05:00
Treasures From Sacred Hill Exhibit in Hong Kong
In 2014, construction work for the Sung Wong Toi MTR station unearthed six ancient wells and a plethora of relics dating from the Song-Yuan period (960 - 1368). The surprise discovery prompted the government to suspend construction for 11 months, allowing for an archaeological team to fully excavate the site. The delay cost over 3 billion HK dollars, but lead to one of the region's largest archaeological finds, with the discovery of over 700,000 artifacts. The station's location was originally a small hill on the Kowloon coastline, known as Sacred Hill. According to legend, two young monarchs of the Southern Song dynasty evaded a Mongol onslaught by fleeing to the hill, leading to area to be named 'Sung Wong Toi', meaning 'Terrace of the Song Emperors'. Perched atop Sacred Hill was a giant rock, inscripted with the Chinese characters 'Sung Wong Toi'. The rock was a well-known tourist destination, but was almostly completely levelled to allow for the expansion of the former Kai Tak Airport during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II. The section of rock bearing the inscription survived the Japanese army's blasting, and was subsequently cut out of the boulder in 1956. This inscribed rectangular stone slab now stands in neighbouring Sung Wong Toi Garden. The Treasures from Sacred Hill exhibit first opened in 2021, and was expanded in 2024 to showcase around 500 artifacts discovered on-site. Among the more notable pieces in the collection are the collection of wine containers, vases and incense burners. For those venturing from Sung Wong Toi station to nearby Kowloon City or the Walled City Park, be sure to examine the Treasures from Sacred Hill Exhibition before leaving the station's paid area. The historical value and splendid intricacies of the exhibit's artifacts are engrossing, as is the oddity of seeing ancient, museum-worthy relics on display in the middle of a modern underground train station.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/treasures-from-sacred-hill-exhibition
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12a4f7349eb593e467dcf9c53c14ab7b597c8810e3e5f5a827c3fa811c2f853f
2026-01-30T14:00:00-05:00
Hotel Porta Fira in Barcelona, Spain
Japanese architect Toyo Ito is known for his playful modern architecture that can often be described as one-of-a-kind. Exemplary of his work is the Hotel Porta Fira near Barcelona, which undoubtedly sticks out like a sore thumb amidst a fairly generic ensemble of skyscrapers. (This is rather ironic considering that Ito insists "architecture must blend in with its environment.") The hotel's curved red shape is meant to be reminiscent of a lotus flower or tree, the latter of which was also a frequent inspiration for Catalonia's favorite architect, Antoni Gaudí. As such, the tower could be considered an homage of sorts to his organic style. The Hotel Porta Fira and the neighboring Torre Realia BCN, also co-designed by Ito, are also homages to the Venetian Towers at Barcelona's Plaça d'Espanya. (They in turn are evidently modeled after St. Mark's Campanile in Venice.) Impressively, the Hotel Porta Fira managed to beat out the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, for the 2010 Emporis Skyscraper Award.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hotel-porta-fira
Science
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a54b4f34b4d5d72790b0da2baedb27cb0783852d6d3f01387c1fee1c4c4c8c27
2026-01-30T13:15:00-05:00
Pedro Rodriguez Is on a Quest for Freshness
When Pedro Rodriguez is in his Kissimmee, Florida restaurant, Sajoma Latin Fusion, he makes sure to check in on the kitchen. And when he does, there’s a rule that all of his cooks must follow. “I better not catch you with anything that’s artificial,” he says. Sajoma’s sancocho, for example, is made from scratch, not with bouillon, which many cooks use to build flavor quickly. The approach has paid off. Sajoma has developed an avid following in Central Florida for its approach to Latin cuisine, rooted in good ingredients and creative cooking. Pedro, gregarious and perceptive with a quick smile and a salt and pepper beard, is proud of his brainchild. He’s a grocery supplier by trade; the restaurant business is relatively new for him. Sajoma is Pedro’s most personal project yet, the capstone of a lifelong obsession with good food and good produce. And it all started on his family’s farm. Until the age of 12, Pedro grew up in the town of San Jose de las Matas in the Dominican Republic. The municipality is known for its natural beauty and mineral water. “It’s almost like one of the greenest towns there,” he says. Sajoma, as the town is called for short, boasts dramatic hills, lush vegetation, and rolling rivers. And even in a beautiful town, Pedro lived a particularly idyllic life. His family owned a 120-acre farm with animals like cows, chickens, and goats, and crops including rice, beans, coffee, and yams. “We pretty much used to feed off the land,” he says. Beef was one of the only basic foodstuffs that he recalls leaving their property to obtain. The family home sat on the top of a hill. From there, Pedro could see a 360-degree view of mountains, greenery, and livestock grazing in the meadow. After school, he would hang around the house and play with the animals on their property. The men who worked for his family would hunt for crabs in caves. Pedro would go with them on their hunts, but he would watch from the side, apprehensive, as they stuck their bare hands into the darkness for huge, snapping crabs. He enjoyed the result, though: a dish called locrio where stewed crab meat releases its flavors into brown rice. Pedro grew up loving food, and it’s easy to see why. His mother was—and still is—a great cook who can turn any ingredient into a special meal. And she had the pick of ingredients in their family home. Milk from their own cows, yams dug up from their own soil. Pedro remembers his mother cooking cerdo guisado, or stewed pork, with onions and cubanelle peppers; and pasta with cooked green bananas. “The food was, like, unexplainably good, because everything was natural,” Pedro says. Twenty years ago in New York City, Pedro met his wife, Marisol, who was born in the U.S. to Dominican parents. When they were dating, she cooked him a meal that was, somehow, even better than his mother’s cooking. Pedro went home and told his mother; she was thrilled that her son had found a worthy match. And Marisol shares her in-laws’ dedication to natural cooking. “She does not use anything artificial,” Pedro says. “She’s very big on that.” That means no bouillon, and no pre-made seasonings, like the dried adobo mix that supermarkets sell. With Sajoma, Pedro’s goal was to let good ingredients sing without any additives. Customers have taken notice. Pedro says that when he walks the floor of the restaurant, diners tell him, “I literally feel like I’m eating this at home.” He believes this is testament to the power of simple cooking with no shortcuts. “Sometimes people think that you could force flavor. You don’t force flavor,” Pedro insists. With natural ingredients, “Flavor is very easy to accomplish.” If the Rodriguez family farm was Pedro’s first culinary education, the multicultural restaurants of New York were his second. When Pedro was 12, his parents moved to New York and sent Pedro, his brother, and his sister to the city of Santiago to live with his grandparents. When Pedro was 14, his parents brought their children to the Big Apple. One might think moving from verdant island to concrete jungle would be difficult. For Pedro, it wasn’t. He received a warm welcome from his extended family, most of whom had settled in New York by the time he and his siblings got there. His first summer in New York, relatives toured him and his siblings around to the city’s parks and botanic garden. He loved the communal culture of 1980s Brooklyn, where he would wile away the day outdoors, playing ball on the streets and hanging out with his cousins. When Pedro’s mother offered to send him back to the Dominican Republic the following winter, he declined. Chief among these new experiences were the city’s food offerings. A family member blew Pedro’s mind when he took him for his first glazed donut. “I was like, ‘Holy shit!’” He remembers. “Where has this been all my life?” Pedro had a similar reaction to his first Chinese meal. Before he learned to speak English, his cousin took him to a restaurant where the staff spoke fluent Spanish with customers before calling out orders to the kitchen in Chinese. Pedro and his cousin bought fried rice with a half chicken and tostones, or fried plantains, and ate it outside on one of their stoops. “I fell in love with that,” he says. The excited, food-loving child is very much alive in 53-year-old Pedro. He describes with equal relish his recent meal at a Peruvian restaurant as well as the locrio he ate on his family’s farm growing up. But food is also his business. In addition to Sajoma Latin Fusion in Kissimmee, Pedro owns four restaurants in New York and runs a fleet of trucks that he says supply most of New York City’s independent grocers. When asked about his secret to success in business, he uses a distinctly Dominican analogy: “I compare it to baseball players.” Many baseball players grow up playing on poorly kept fields. A ball might hit a rock, and smack you in the face. “It’s harder when you’re in the minor leagues,” he says. But, “You got to make sure that you could do that. Because once you go to the majors, the field is perfect now.” The message: “Start small,” he says, master your craft, and expand slowly. For Pedro, starting small meant working at his uncle’s grocery stores in Far Rockaway, Queens during high school. On Saturdays, he traveled with him to produce markets to stock the store. When Pedro graduated high school, he decided that he would rather spend the next few years growing a business. “What do I know at the time and what do I like at the time? Produce,” he says. So Pedro bought a van, and started delivering groceries to supermarkets, drawing on the connections he had built while working for his uncle. Soon, he bought a large truck, then two trucks. Today, he runs a fleet of 20 trucks. The road has not been easy. His equivalent of errant baseballs that threaten to hit you in the face were snowstorms that he had to fight through to deliver groceries. For years, he worked 18-hour shifts, rain, shine or snow. “I’d come home and eat, sleep for three or four hours, and go right back out there,” he remembers. He has since stepped back from physically driving trucks and delivering produce, but still helms the business. Over the years, many family members of Pedro’s have moved to Kissimmee. A friend told him about an open lot, wondering whether Pedro would be interested in opening a restaurant there. When Pedro saw the place, disparate threads of his life knit together: his childhood spent eating fresh produce on a Dominican farm; his exposure to cuisines from every corner of the world in New York; the New York hustle that had become his way of being. “Oh my god, this is perfect,” he remembers thinking after laying eyes on the space. He wanted to build a restaurant that combined fresh ingredients, Latin American cuisine, international influences, and New York service. And he would name it “Sajoma,” after the town that started his journey. After a period of renovation and menu-tweaking, Pedro opened Sajoma Latin Fusion in August of 2022. The restaurant’s interior is sleek and spacious, with an outdoor patio and plush couches. The team makes sure the produce is fresh, hand-picking it themselves from local independent supermarkets rather than large suppliers. Sajoma’s menu dances between Latin America—especially the Caribbean—and other parts of the world, like Europe, Asia, and North America. Their tuna tartare comes on a bed of guacamole and corn chips; their burger is topped with sweet plantains; and their sancocho is made from scratch with no additives. A pair of elderly Puerto Rican ladies recently visited the restaurant and made a point of telling Pedro how much they appreciated the sancocho. “We’ve had something like this at a house,” they told him. But “we have never tried anything like this at a restaurant.” They would spread the word to their family, they said. The word, it seems, has already gotten out. The restaurant has a loyal and growing following, and it becomes a party on weekends, when DJs and bands play salsa, bachata, merengue, and more. Much of Pedro’s work has been helping the team emulate the type of prompt, attentive service that one finds at a restaurant in New York. Achieving that has taken a lot of repetition, but they’ve pulled it off. “I’m just so proud, you know?” he says. Pedro says he approaches restaurant ownership as an eater, not a cook. He is actually not much of a chef, having been blessed with great cooking in his mother’s and wife’s kitchens, and in restaurants around the world. He constantly tries new restaurants, and he acts as the president of a group of around 40 New York supermarket industry professionals that call themselves the “Friday club” because they meet up at restaurants for food and wine every Friday. It’s easy to see why he would be named president: He knows good food and has the gift of gab. Pedro’s love of conversation and a good time is part of what draws him to the restaurant business, and when he is not checking on the kitchen at Sajoma, he is walking the floor, entertaining guests. He knows what it is to work hard all week and turn to a restaurant to provide delicious food and a space to connect with friends. “I don’t have to know how to cook,” in order to run a good restaurant, he says. “I have to know how to eat.”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pedro-rodriguez-kissimmee
Science
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11556530b604221c8fe4544e791dc8b243c63897b777aa9c6359de03c32203fe
2026-01-30T10:00:00-05:00
Box 43 in Teresina, Brazil
At first glance, the Centro de Artesanato Mestre Dezinho, in downtown Teresina, looks exactly like what it is meant to be: a lively cultural space filled with local art, handicrafts, paintings, and souvenirs from Piauí. Tourists wander between colorful stalls, artisans chat with visitors, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Until you reach Box 43. Hidden beneath this small shop is a trapdoor that leads to one of the most well-preserved remnants of Brazil’s military dictatorship: a former underground detention cell, sealed away in plain sight beneath a craft market. The building itself once served as the headquarters of the Military Police of Piauí, a role it held until the late 1970s. When it was converted into a cultural center in the 1980s, most traces of its previous life disappeared; except for this basement, which was never dismantled or reconstructed. What remains is real, original, and unsettling. Pulling open the heavy metal trapdoor reveals a steep descent down a narrow staircase. The steps are short and awkward, forcing visitors to descend carefully. At the bottom lies a cramped, windowless room measuring roughly 7 by 2 meters. The walls are lined with old ceramic tiles that reflect sound sharply, amplifying echoes and creating an oppressive acoustic effect. Light and air enter only through the opening above. This space functioned as a holding cell during the years of political repression, roughly between 1964 and 1978. It was used to detain political prisoners: Teachers, students, intellectuals, clergy, and ordinary citizens accused of subversion or association with forbidden ideas. Physical traces remain. Scratches and impact marks scar the tiles. Dark stains are still visible on the walls and stairs. On the ceiling, the metal support for a pau-de-arara (a notorious torture device) can still be seen. On one wall, high-mounted metal rings mark where prisoners were restrained for long periods, forced to stand under extreme physical stress. There are no drains in the floor. No signs of beds. No ventilation system. The design itself reinforces isolation, discomfort, and disorientation, an architectural reminder of how spaces were once engineered to strip people of dignity. Today, this hidden basement serves a different purpose: memory. It stands as a quiet but powerful reminder of a chapter in Brazilian history that is easy to forget when walking through a cheerful marketplace above. The contrast between handmade art and the dark space below makes the experience all the more striking. Visiting this site is not about spectacle. It is about preserving a physical trace of the past, ensuring that what happened beneath these floors is neither erased nor ignored.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/box-43
Science
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7b287424b855d769f60f980912cf6824e0d2e48cad1f341438a4dad019553188
2026-01-29T16:00:00-05:00
Nintendo Headquarters in Kyoto, Japan
Nintendo is one of the world's most recognizable brands, taking up real estate in millions of houses ever since the NES came out in 1983. The colorful, imaginative, and very well-designed games of the studio draw in many children and adults alike. And it seems like their popularity is only expanding with the new amusement park and movie. What many people don't tend to think about however is that Nintendo is a real-life company with real-life employees, which means that it has to have a real-life location. The main building of Nintendo can be found in southern Kyoto, not far from its original building. While this gray building could be disappointing to some, it has in fact become a sort of pilgrim location for hardened Nintendo fans who come to take a photo with the sign. Don't expect anything beyond that though, as the building has no visitors center or museum and is off limits for anyone without an appointment.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nintendo-head-office
Science
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54fe69a73344424ae584a84299cd1d8f75c6a0f0a103049c100b45835f07e157
2026-01-29T14:00:00-05:00
Wing Lee Street in Hong Kong
Sandwiched between the skyscrapers of Mid-Levels district stands Wing Lee Street, a small car-free terrace made up of a row of 11 Chinese-style tenement buildings, known locally as 'Tong Lau'. After being destroyed in World War II, Wing Lee Street was rebuilt in the early 1950s. The terrace's elevator-less four storey tenements are one of the last places in Hong Kong where an entire row of tong laus still stands intact. Post-war, the street became known as a hub for letterpress printing. At one point, 11 different printing shops occupied the terrace's ground floor shops. The last of these shops shuttered in 2012, by which point the Wing Lee Street tong laus had already been slated for demolition. The terrace's unlikely reprieve came in the form of a local film called 'Echoes of the Rainbow'. Depicting the lives of a working class family in 1960s Hong Kong, Wing Lee Street provided the antiquated backdrop that served as the film's principal shooting location. Released to critical acclaim, Echoes of the Rainbow won the Crystal Bear award for best feature film in the Generation category at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. The movie's post-Berlin buzz and ensuing public opposition encouraged the government to abandon the redevelopment plans, and instead work to restore the tong laus and surrounding area. With restoration now complete, the exteriors of the tong laus look more polished, and arguably more modern than their actual age. However, Wing Lee Street still exudes a nostalgic, old-world charm that is becoming increasingly harder to find in Hong Kong.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wing-lee-street
Science
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034653f7e373df1079740e99dcbed1da9547bcab7ccc12edc5f5745c769042b0
2026-01-29T12:00:00-05:00
Naramachi Nepalese Window in Nara, Japan
The Naramachi Historic District sits south of the famous Nara Park, lined with traditional wooden townhouses and steeped in tranquil, old-world charm. It’s a distinctly Japanese area, straight out of the mid-19th century. But, surprisingly, a very exotic element hides in plain sight among these townhouses, blending perfectly into traditional architecture. This hand-carved Nepalese window, with intricate reliefs of flowers, lions and Garuda, once adorned the Nepal Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka Expo. The building itself belongs to the nearby Gango-ji Temple, once used as a lodging for travelling priests, including some from Nepal. Interestingly, it has not been recorded when the window was brought to Nara – and it remains unknown what happened to the rest of the Nepal Pavilion.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/naramachi-nepalese-window
Science
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e39774ccefeb95d76ec18a67701b06b1dd65827627275775f15fba520baf7726
2026-01-29T10:00:00-05:00
Tecumseh Sculpture in Vincennes, Indiana
Minooteeni (translated as “Village”) Park in Vincennes, Indiana, was created to honor the Native American people of the area. Most prominent among the park’s displays is a wood-carved sculpture of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, created by artist Peter Toth. Tecumseh is best remembered for attempting to unite the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region of the United States. He formed a confederation of tribes known as the United Indian Nations, an effort to halt the westward expansion of the United States. Tecumseh served as the political leader, while his brother, Tenskwatawa (“The Prophet”), acted as the spiritual leader. The confederation ended with Tecumseh’s death in October 1813, when he was killed in battle in Canada. Toth dedicated this sculpture to Vincennes in 2009 as part of his series known as The Trail of Whispering Giants. There are 74 sculptures in the series, created by Toth and located across all 50 states, as well as in Canada and Europe. Tecumseh also features prominently in Vincennes history, having met here with Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison in 1811. The city is also home to Tecumseh-Harrison Elementary School and the Tecumseh Dining Center on the campus of Vincennes University.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tecumseh-sculpture-at-minooteeni-park
Science
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95a53fe766aa96581524bcb3beb191e6bffdddab7608bff44ca6393aeef9eeb7
2026-01-28T17:15:00-05:00
How Ford Convinced Edison to Build a Botanical Laboratory
Kelly McEvers: Thomas Edison and his family had a ritual. Every winter, they would leave freezing cold New Jersey and head down to Fort Myers, Florida. Back then, Fort Myers was out there. Think swamps and mosquitoes. It was actually easier to get around by boat than over land. The Edisons would do vacation stuff: go fishing, go on boat rides, collect interesting plants. And in 1914, they invited a different branch of American inventing royalty to join them. That year, Henry Ford, of the Model T Ford, came down to Florida with his wife, Clara. Ford must have been psyched because Edison was actually his hero. They’d met briefly years before at a conference when Ford was still a low-level employee at an Edison company. Now they were meeting on something like equal terms. So to celebrate the occasion, Ford had some Model Ts shipped down to Fort Myers. Everyone went out joyriding around the swamps. The cars flooded, their campsite got soaked. Clara Ford was really afraid of snakes, and there were snakes everywhere. Henry tried to scare them away by shooting off a pistol. Needless to say, it was a trip. But soon, once the smoke from Ford’s pistol had cleared and the Model Ts had dried out, Edison and Ford would become more than just travel buddies. They were actually about to embark on an enormous inventing project, a project that would turn Edison’s Florida house into a full-fledged botanical laboratory and would become the last great obsession of Edison’s life. I’m Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Today’s episode is brought to you in partnership with Fort Myers – Islands, Beaches and Neighborhoods. Maybe when you think of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, you think technology, cars, light bulbs, electricity. But the success of both of their inventions depended on plants. That is why they had come to Florida: to experiment. This is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Kelly: Plants were actually the reason Thomas Edison had fallen in love with Fort Myers in the first place. Around 30 years before that camping trip with Ford, Edison was working away in his Menlo Park lab on one of his most famous projects. Karen Maxwell: Many people are under the misimpression he invented the light bulb. He actually perfected it. Kelly: This is Karen Maxwell. She’s the horticulture director at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. Karen: So, at this time, there are about 20 different varieties of incandescent light bulbs, but none of them burned for very long. Kelly: The problem was this teeny tiny piece inside the bulb called a filament. When electricity passes through, the filament heats up and glows and we get light. But none of these early filaments could glow long enough to make a practical light bulb. So Edison set out to change that, testing thousands and thousands of different materials. Cotton, platinum, cedar, and finally, bamboo. Karen: And he had his team—I’m glad I wasn’t one of them then—they stayed up and did shifts to record how long it burned. That filament burned for 1,200 hours. And that made the incandescent light bulb a national product. Kelly: Edison, already a famous inventor, was now a legend. But by the end of the project, his personal life was a mess. Karen: He was 38 years old, burned out, and had lost his first wife, Mary. Three children. His doctor says, Thomas, you need to go south, take a vacation, and take a break. He ends up arriving in St. Augustine during the winter and finds that is really too cold. It didn’t meet what his doctor had prescribed. So one of his friends takes him further down the river and they end up going by the property, which is currently today what we know as the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. What does he see but stands of bamboo growing along the riverside? He bought it on the spot. Kelly: Edison remarried, and soon he and his second wife, Mina, started transforming the Florida property and its stand of bamboo into their wintertime home away from home. Edison even had an old laboratory shipped down from New Jersey in case inspiration struck while he was on vacation. You know, his lab away from lab. At first, he did some experimenting with bamboo, but then in 1905, the invention of the tungsten filament for the light bulb made the bamboo one obsolete. Soon enough, though, he would have another project to focus on. After the Fords joined the Edison family vacation in 1914, it was time for Ford to invite Edison on a trip. They went to San Francisco, and Ford introduced Edison to some friends: a botanist named Luther Burbank, who was interested in plant hybridization, and the tire magnate, Harvey Firestone, of Firestone Tires. It wasn’t long before their conversation turned to rubber. And the thing was, in order to make cars, you needed tires, and in order to make tires, you needed rubber. Back then, there was no such thing as synthetic rubber. All of it came from plants. Most natural rubber was grown in Southeast Asia, in British and Dutch colonies, and that meant the British and Dutch set rubber prices. The crew became convinced that America needed its own domestic rubber supply. Edison got to work right away. Karen: So he starts looking for a product that can grow quickly, produce latex. Latex is what makes rubber. Latex is a milky white substance. If you break open the stem, out comes a sticky white milky product. That is latex and that is the basis of all natural rubber. Over 17,000 plants are brought in and studied. There were botanists, volunteers, they even engaged the Union Pacific Railroad, who instructed every section chief to collect any plants growing along their extensive miles of right-of-way and forward them to Edison’s laboratory. Kelly: The Florida House essentially became a latex distilling factory. Today, if you visit, you can still see a lot of these plants that Edison was experimenting on. There’s a spiny vine called crown of thorns, which looks like a cactus; a scrubby desert shrub called guayule, which is native to Mexico; and the most spectacular specimen, or at least the biggest, was the banyan tree. Karen: It’s been in place for 100 years. And over the years, it’s grown extensively. We’ve had to maintain trimming so it doesn’t just eat up the buildings. The first impression people have is they’re looking at a forest of trees. Kelly: Today, the tree covers nearly an entire acre of land. It’s the largest banyan tree in the continental U.S. But unfortunately for Edison, it just did not produce enough latex. Karen: In 1928, he discovers, right here in his backyard, the plant that produces the most latex is goldenrod. Kelly: Goldenrod is a very fast-growing weed with yellow flowers. Looks a lot like ragweed. So Edison ripped out rows and rows of his wife Mina’s citrus trees to plant goldenrod, which I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled about. Karen: He mows them all down and he transforms their estate-like atmosphere to just a conglomeration of disorderly beds with markers and irrigation ditches all around, 500 plots of yellow goldenrod. And as you can imagine, that did little to kindle her enthusiasm for his work. Kelly: Speaking of Mina’s view of his work, she was annoyed about the citrus trees, yes, but she was also worried about her husband’s health. Edison was in his 80s now and still keeping pretty long hours. Mina wrote, “He thinks of nothing else now. He has no time for anything else, no recreation,” and, “Everything turned to rubber in the family. We talked rubber, thought rubber, dreamed rubber.” There was also some tension between her and Henry Ford. For one thing, Ford had bought the house right next door. That’s why the museum today is known as the Edison and Ford Estates. And another thing: Ford had convinced Edison to let him dismantle his Florida lab and ship it up to Michigan. Because Ford wanted to start a museum dedicated to American innovation, and he said he simply needed his hero’s lab. Mina was not too happy about this. Though, with the help of Ford and Firestone, Edison did end up building a brand new botanical lab. Still, by the end of the 1920s, Edison’s health got worse. He came down with pneumonia and by the fall of 1931 was bedridden in New Jersey. At one point on his deathbed, as he was slipping in and out of consciousness, someone came in with a package sent from the Florida house. Inside was a small piece of rubber made from Edison’s goldenrod plants. According to biographer Michele Albion, he had a moment of lucidity, and then sunk into a coma. Just a few days later, he died on October 18th, 1931. The Edison family kept the botanical research lab going until 1934, when it was transferred over to the Department of Agriculture. Karen: But it turned out his vision of the importance became true because when World War II came about, Japan captured Malaysia, Singapore, and most of the Pacific Rim rubber plantations. Kelly: During the war, there were serious rubber shortages in the U.S. The government rationed gasoline and lowered speed limits just to make tires last longer. Karen: But it was shortly after that that synthetic rubber ended the goldenrod destiny. That was in 1944. And It was pretty much what Tungsten did for his carbonized bamboo filament, the synthetic rubber did to his goldenrod rubber research. But he was right. I mean, he kept people going in the right direction. Without that foundation, we probably wouldn’t have been here today. Kelly: Today, the Ford and Edison Winter Estates are combined into one big museum property. You can spend hours wandering around the grounds and seeing many of the plants that we talked about in this episode. The bamboo, the goldenrod, the banyan tree, and of course, the botanical laboratory itself. Karen: It’s a 21-acre paradise of discovery for people that enjoy gardens and enjoy the different textures, the structures, the colors. There’s something blooming every single day. Many, many things. Kelly: In our episode description, we will post a link to more info about visiting the Edison and Ford winter estates. And if you enjoyed today’s show, check out another episode of ours called Fordlandia. It’s all about Henry Ford’s very unsuccessful attempt to start an industrial rubber town in Brazil. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Sirius XM Podcasts. This episode was produced by Amanda McGowan. The production team for this episode includes Dylan Thuras, Doug Baldinger, Kameel Stanley, Johanna Mayer, Manolo Morales, Jerome Campbell, Amanda McGowan, Alexa Lim, Casey Holford, and Luz Fleming. Our theme music is by Sam Tyndall.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-edison-ford-winter-estate
Science
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feccaf9ab5c2501e3c3ea725b2e4e25972356a1b4bcb28ab95f3547bce59527d
2026-01-28T16:00:00-05:00
St Peter's Church in Barton-upon-Humber, England
The "Dark Ages" may have not been the gloomiest period in history, but they were "dark" in the sense that relatively little was known about them for quite some time. For instance, nobody was sure what Anglo-Saxon architecture really looked like until the field of architectural history emerged in the 19th century. In 1819, progenitor of the discipline Thomas Rickman was surveying St Peter's Church in Barton-upon-Humber. He noticed that the Norman top storey of the church's tower was on top of two more stories in an unidentified style. Reasoning that the bottom features must be older in construction, he concluded that they must date from the Anglo-Saxon period. As such, this church is one of the most notable and studied Anglo-Saxon structures among historians. St Peter's was originally a turriform church, a unique Anglo-Saxon style in which the tower also served as the nave (main seating area) and the chancel (seating area for clergy) was off to the side. (In the Norman period, the church was expanded significantly so that the nave is now located where the chancel once was.) On the tower today, the most distinctive features are the decorative pilasters and arches made of Roman stone. They are likely copied from similar wooden buildings. St Peter's was eventually declared redundant and closed in 1970, giving archaeologists a chance to conduct an unprecedentedly thorough excavation of it. They discovered 3,000 skeletons on the church grounds and were able to construct a thorough history of the church's expansion. Today, it is run by English Heritage.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-peters-church-barton-upon-humber
Science
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7ac6ab76cfd6cb75ab95087b3ceb5bb284e3dd6b0d88ad1a197ac9d7c76975b0
2026-01-28T14:00:00-05:00
Vulture City Ghost Town in Wickenburg, Arizona
The Vulture Mine, located 12 miles south of Wickenburg, AZ, was home to Arizona's most productive gold mine. It was founded in 1863 by Henry Wickenburg, though due to a dispute over his claim after selling the mine to Benjamin Phelps (and the investors Phelps represented), Wickenburg lost the rights to his claim and was pushed out of camp. Vulture Mine pushed on without the presence of Henry Wickenburg and produced 360,000 oz of gold and 260,000 oz of silver. Most was mined between 1864 and 1912, though the town wasn't abandoned until 1942 when the Second War Act was passed and all "non-essential" gold mines were shut down. The mining camp sat abandoned for decades until the current owners acquired it from the Vulture Mine (which began operations in 2014) and restorations began in 2017. Now 16 original buildings remain and have been stabilized so as to be safe to enter. A few key buildings such as the brothel (with an indoor kitchen), assay building (divided into four sections), and power house (which houses a WW1 era submarine diesel engine that powered the town!) are architecturally and historically interesting.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/vulture-city-ghost-town
Science
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54588085a683b4d75c221ee63ac3cbd66ccda11ee3334c1f82aa9dff9971e6e4
2026-01-27T17:15:00-05:00
Why Did Henry Ford Build a Midwestern Town in the Amazon Rainforest?
Elah Feder: Johanna, do you ever buy lottery tickets? Johanna Mayer: No, never. Not a lottery ticket kind of gal. Elah: I actually just got shamed by the man selling me lottery tickets for wasting my money. Johanna: You buy lottery tickets? Elah: I do buy lottery tickets. And I think what I really like about it is fantasizing that, you know, if I have enough money, I will finally be able to do whatever I want. Johanna: And this is the appeal of being a multimillionaire, Elah. Elah: Right, right. Johanna: You’re not the first one to have this impulse. Elah: I have this crazy, wild notion that money will give me power. And the story that we’re going to talk about today is about a lot of things. But one of them is a lesson about how even with unlimited money, from time to time, the world refuses to do your bidding. So I want to take you back to the 1920s and tell you about Henry Ford. The 1920s was a time when Henry Ford was incredibly wealthy. Classic story. He started off as a simple Michigan farm boy, started tinkering. And then in 1908, he created the Model T, the first ever affordable mass-produced car, which made him incredibly rich. But it also reshaped America in the process. He decided that well-paid workers weren’t going to quit, so he brought in higher wages. He also brought in the eight-hour workday. Johanna: It’s funny, I was just talking last weekend with my partner about Ford a little bit, where we were like, he is the reason that we have a car-centric society. But he was surprisingly good to his workers. Complicated figure. Elah: He started off good to his workers. We’ll get there. But in the late 1920s, Ford, despite all of his wealth, he was forced to cave on a couple of pretty big things. He was forced to finally update his cars after years of resisting even a simple color change. Even more humiliating, a defamation suit forced him to apologize to Jewish people, which was very difficult for him because he loved talking about Jews before that. So in the late ’20s, Ford was realizing he was not all-powerful. But then in 1927, an incredible opportunity presented itself. A real chance to enact his vision of society, maybe without having to compromise this time. It was a place called Fordlândia in Brazil. And it didn’t quite make the biography on the Ford website for reasons that I think will soon become clear. I’m Johanna Mayer, and this is Atlas Obscura. And I’m Elah Feder. And today, the story of Fordlândia, Henry Ford’s attempt to build a wholesome Midwestern town in the Amazon rainforest. This is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Johanna: Okay, I am intrigued. Why the rainforest? Why did Ford decide to build his vision of utopia in the Amazon rainforest? Elah: So, it didn’t start out with a town. It started with rubber. So, as you know, cars need rubber for tires, for hoses. Today, most rubber is synthetic. The 1920s, it pretty much all came from rubber trees. Johanna: So I did know this, and I can picture a rubber tree, which I think has a lot of big roots and like a wide trunk and stuff. Elah: Massive. Johanna: But I have never understood exactly how you get rubber from these trees. Elah: It’s not too complicated. Ancient Mesoamericans figured this out. All you need to do is injure the tree. Johanna: It saps it out? Elah: It’s not technically sap. It’s another substance that oozes out of the tree. It kind of looks like coconut milk. It’s sticky and white and full of defense compounds. And that substance is called latex. So if you peel the bark of a rubber tree and let the latex drip out into a bucket, and then you dry it out, you get this bendy, bouncy material that we call rubber. So Ford decides he’s going to grow these rubber trees where they came from: the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Johanna: Seems like a solid plan. Elah: It does seem that way. I should say it wasn’t actually Ford’s idea. He was actually being courted pretty aggressively by Brazilians. There was a Brazilian diplomat who really wanted to bring Ford to Brazil. There was a wealthy Brazilian businessman. And the idea was that bringing Ford, this wealthy industrialist, could potentially revive a really impoverished region, the northeast of Brazil. Ford very quickly agreed, and the company acquired 2.5 million acres of land, which they called Fordlândia. So, Fordlândia was on the east side of the Tapajos River, which is a tributary of the Amazon. This land is really deep in the rainforest. There were no roads, no railways. It took about 18 hours by boat to get there from the nearest city. So just imagine your classic kind of jungle. Towering trees, thick vines, tons of insects, birds, thousands of species, and, of course, rubber trees. Johanna: Okay, goal is to create a rubber plantation. Makes sense to go to the Amazon. The part that I’m snagging on is the Midwestern town aspect. Elah: Right. Johanna: How does that come in? Elah: So, a plantation obviously doesn’t run itself. It needs people. You need people to tap the trees, harvest the rubber. And then you need other people to feed those people, provide medical care. If you have families coming with the workers, then you’re going to need schools. You might need entertainment. You really need a whole town. And at Fordlândia, that’s what Ford created. Although not Ford himself, Ford didn’t go to Brazil. He had a crew of Ford company men who were dedicated to making this place according to Henry Ford’s vision. Johanna: It’s how it usually goes. Elah: So the town itself, it took a little bit of time to build. People started showing up well before there was a town. People who needed work came, and they brought their families. So they needed a place to live. They slapped together temporary shelters using planks from packing crates for walls and palm leaves for roofs. But within a couple of years, there was the start of a recognizable American-style town. They had a power plant, a hospital, a neighborhood with wooden houses with sidewalks and street lamps. A little later would come tennis courts, a dance hall, a movie theater, a golf course. But this was not just a lovely oasis in the Amazon. Because Henry Ford was a man with very particular ideas about how a society should be run. So increasingly, as he got older, he had this nostalgia for his old pastoral life. But at the same time, he hated cows. Johanna: What’s wrong with cows? Elah: Well, he thought they were very crude and inefficient machines. And he thought— Johanna: Was— Elah: Sorry, go ahead. I don’t think he was vegetarian. Johanna: That’s what I was going to ask, yeah. Elah: But he was a big fan of soy. Johanna: Okay. Elah: One time he built a full soy body. He had a suit made out of soy fibers. Johanna: This is a whole other podcast episode. Elah: The cow thing kind of threw me for a loop. But some of his ideas were actually really good. Like we mentioned, he thought people should be well paid, shouldn’t work super long hours. He also thought it was important that people be healthy. So he didn’t think they should drink or smoke. But he took this wholesome lifestyle thing a little far. He thought, for example, that dancing was good, but should not involve too much touching. Johanna: No sexy dancing allowed. Elah: Yes. Too many people were sexy dancing, which he blamed on Jewish people. So … Johanna: What? Elah: You’re welcome for that. I’m sure a lot of us have our own idiosyncratic spin on what makes a good life. The difference between Henry Ford and most of us is that he actually had the power to make his vision happen, to fashion a world in his image. This is not necessarily a good power for everyone to have. Henry Ford didn’t just encourage good habits and provide healthy food to his workers. He forced these things on them, not just in Fordlândia, but in all of his facilities. But as you can imagine, workers in the Amazon did not get the royal treatment. They were supposed to eat Henry Ford prescribed healthy meals at the company mess hall. They had to report any sexually transmitted infections to the company or risk getting caught at random STI inspections. They were not allowed to drink. A team of men would actually do spot searches of people’s homes and confiscate any alcohol that they found. Johanna: It strikes me that this may not be the best route to creating the utopian society that you desire. The difference between Ford’s utopian society, Fordlândia, and a lot of other ones that come up throughout history is that in other utopian societies, people are signing up. They’re actively joining them of their own volition because they supposedly believe in some sort of common vision. Not the case here. Elah: People just came to make rubber and get a paycheck. They did not come to have every aspect of their lives controlled. There were also unique challenges in the Amazon that Ford’s men did not anticipate. It turns out that you cannot just build an American town exactly as it is in America, wherever you want. Johanna: Wait, you can’t? Elah: Yeah. Revise life plan. For example, the houses that they had built. People were used to these houses with dirt floors and thatched roofs. These new houses had concrete floors and metal roofs. It impressed the journalists that visited, but they were unbearably hot in this climate. You do not want to be cooking under a metal roof, and you want good airflow. The Ford company provided free medical care for the workers, at least. Johanna: Sounds good. Elah: Despite that, a lot of people died. It is hard going in the Amazon. Both the American families and the Brazilian workers, a lot of people died of tropical diseases. People were being bitten by vipers when they were trying to clear jungle. This one guy whose job was to saw timber, he ended up preparing a lot of the wood they needed for coffins. He estimated they were averaging a death a day. In 1930, so just two years into the project, frustrations were at an all-time high. Ford’s men were also realizing that they weren’t really doing a good job of keeping people in line. In December of that year, 1930, one of Ford’s officials decides they need to make a change. Ford, as you know, wanted people to eat healthy. Apparently, he prescribed that people eat oatmeal and canned peaches for breakfast. Johanna: That sounds good. Elah: And rice and whole wheat bread for dinner. But— Johanna: Sounds less good. Elah: People wanted to eat whatever they wanted. And so they were getting food elsewhere. And this Ford employee decided that the solution was to feed them food from the cafeteria and deduct it from their wages. And that is when people snapped. It started when a guy named Manuel Caetano de Jesus, who was a brick mason, he decided to confront a payroll worker in the dining hall. And Manuel was yelling at him in Portuguese, which apparently this guy did not understand. But then Manuel hands him his badge, which he did understand. And this payroll worker’s reaction is to laugh. And that’s when the whole place erupts. People are suddenly smashing plates, pots, sinks, and they go and find all the Ford cars and smash them up. According to one person who was there, people started chanting “Brazil for Brazilians, kill all the Americans.” This was a massive riot across Fordlândia. And by the time that things calm down, the place is basically in ruins. Johanna: Is that it? Is that the end of Fordlândia? Elah: Weirdly not. Somehow. Johanna: Incredible. Elah: Yeah. So they end up firing most of the workers, but keep a skeleton crew and start to rebuild. And a few years later, they end up acquiring another plot of land nearby and building a second town and more plantations. And Fordlândia chugs along. The bigger problem, at least for the Ford company, is not that the workers hate them. It’s that Fordlândia isn’t actually doing the one thing it’s supposed to do, which is produce rubber. Johanna: God, this has been such a journey, I forgot that they were supposed to be producing rubber this whole time. Elah: That was the point of all of this. So it does take time, right? And they’d had many false starts. You know, they planted trees in the dry season. That didn’t work well. But eventually they get it together. And by 1940, they have three million trees planted across 30,000 acres of land. Johanna: Whoa. Elah: But here’s the thing. It turns out Brazil is not actually the best place to grow Brazilian rubber trees. Johanna: What? Elah: Because Brazil, the place the trees are native to, also has all of the trees’ natural enemies. Johanna: Ah, interesting. Elah: When trees are scattered throughout a forest, the trees manage to grow okay. But then imagine you are a rubber tree-eating bug or fungus, and you come upon all of these rubber trees jam-packed together in one place. You are going to come out and feast. You’re going to reproduce. You’re going to hop from tree to tree. It’s a massive buffet. Johanna: Like, here we are! Elah: Yeah. So by 1940, 70 percent of Fordlândia’s rubber trees were infected with a fungal blight. They get through that. But then in 1942, they’re hit with caterpillars. Johanna: Dun, dun, dun. Elah: I mean, caterpillars had always been a problem. But for a few years, the workers managed to keep them at bay. But in 1942, there is a total caterpillar explosion that they just can’t keep up with. And just as the situation was starting to get under control, they were hit with a second wave of fungal blight. And combined, it’s a pretty fatal blow. And just a few years later, in November of 1945, the company decides it is time to abandon this project. Apparently, they did not give the local workers much notice. Many Brazilians didn’t even know the Americans were leaving until the day they got on the ships. And that was how they found out they were unemployed. Johanna: Oh, my God. Elah: Yeah. By this point, Ford himself was over 80. He wasn’t doing well. And two years later, he died. Johanna: You said that they just picked up and left and got on ships. What happened to the town? Are the buildings still there? Does anyone still live there? What happened to Fordlândia? Elah: So a lot of the story I’ve told you is based on a book by Greg Grandin called Fordlandia, which came out in 2009. When he visited, a lot of the old structures were there. The old factory buildings, the sawmill, the warehouse, they’re kind of falling apart but standing. And a few of the old houses were there, too, apparently full of bats and just covered in guano. And back when Greg Grandin visited, one of the main sources of income was cattle ranching. Apparently, there were cows grazing on the old golf course. The old tennis courts had been turned into cattle stalls. And the hillsides that used to be planted with rubber trees were turned into pasture land for cows. Johanna: Yes, justice for the cows. This was a totally fascinating story, Elah. Thank you. Elah: Thanks for having me, Johanna. The town of Fordlândia is still around. And since Greg Grandin’s visit, it’s had a bit of a resurgence. An estimated 3,000 people live there. There’s now a tall Catholic church, a guest house, a bar, a restaurant. And scattered throughout, crumbling remains of Henry Ford’s failed American town. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Stitcher Studios. The people who make our show include Dylan Thuras, Doug Baldinger, Kameel Stanley, Johanna Mayer, Manolo Morales, Amanda McGowan, Alexa Lim, Casey Holford, and Luz Fleming. Our theme music is by Sam Tyndall.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-fordlandia
Science
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2026-01-26T14:00:00-05:00
Atlas Obscura’s Guide to Sun Valley, Idaho’s Most Fascinating Places
From top to bottom, Sun Valley is full of surprises. Only in this fascinating pocket of central Idaho can you experience an annual heritage festival that parades thousands of sheep from the mountains to Main Street by day, then discover some of the darkest night skies in the world for mind-blowing star gazing. In between, you’ll relax in a botanical garden’s meditative nook, and visit the gravesite of one of the world’s most notable writers and explore a moon-like national park full of caves and lava flows. Enjoy this guide to 10 wonderful ways to start your Sun Valley adventure. The Roundhouse, a staple of Sun Valley Resort since 1939, elevates any dining experience—literally. Located 7,700 feet above sea level on Bald Mountain, the restaurant has been a featured fine dining spot since 1939, and is open seasonally, December through March. The octagonal restaurant, featuring 46 windows, is only accessible only by gondola, and the sweeping views of the entire valley make the views as impressive as the menu. Inside oozes with a ski chalet-style, cozy ambiance, especially the four-sided fireplace. A popular starter, the Fondue For Two, comes with artisan bread, Granny Smith apples, grapes, and gherkins. You can also add specialty meats and vegetables for an extra charge. A Wagyu burger, lobster rolls, scallops, and elk Swedish meatballs all make the menu here. Grab your tent and experience the awe-inspiring wonder of Central Idaho’s starry, night sky in the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve. One of the last remaining areas of this level of nighttime natural darkness in the world, the reserve encompasses just under 1,500 miles of public lands inside the Sawtooth National Forest. Certified by the International Dark Sky Association in 2017, and given its highest “gold tier” status, the reserve features an ultra-dark core, plus dark periphery that helps protect the central dark area. Meteor showers, lunar eclipses, spring equinox and the summer solstice are just a few of the many public viewing events held at the reserve annually. The protected wilderness areas under these dark skies are also home to a stunning array of wildlife, including bears, wolverines, elk, wolves, and sandhill cranes. Each fall, a woolly throng of sheep, roughly 1,200 in all, parade down the main street of Ketchum, Idaho, for the Trailing of the Sheep Festival. The treasured annual event commemorates the time-honored migration of sheep from Idaho’s high mountain summer pastures to the warmer, grazing and lambing grounds found farther south. For five days, the community celebrates the history, culture, and traditions of the region’s longstanding sheep ranchers, which include Basques, Peruvians, and Scots. Signature events include lamb-centered culinary classes, woolmaking workshops, a heritage fair, and national sheepdog trials. The 2026 festival is October 7-11. A trip to Central Idaho’s Snake River Plain is just about as close to the moon as most of us will ever get. Aptly described as “a weird and scenic landscape” by President Calvin Coolidge when he established the 750,000-acre federally protected site in 1924, the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve features a vast, lunar-like landscape of lava flows, cinder cones, and sagebrush. The unique environment was created thousands of years ago by a series of major eruptions along the 52-mile stretch of deep cracks in the Earth’s crust called the Great Rift. For generations, the park has garnered attention and profound fascination, and the wild terrain even served as a training ground for Apollo astronauts in the 1960s. Today, explorers enjoy discovering the park’s many lava tube caves and trails, and viewing the impressive overlooks while driving along the 7-mile Loop Road. Nature lovers and photographers also flock to the park for its surprising diversity of birds and other wildlife, plus it’s a designated dark sky park. In downtown Ketchum, the Sun Valley Museum of Art is just one of the many ways to explore the rich culture of the region—off the slopes. Now an integral part of Sun Valley’s arts and culture community, this free museum opened in 1971 and has grown to feature works from greats like Andy Warhol to important pieces from local and regional artists. Equal parts museum and educational hub, the center also features interesting lecture series, live music, films, and hands-on art classes and workshops throughout the year. The exhibit, "Hidden Gems: Idaho Collects," brings art held in private collections in the region into public view through February 28, 2026. The exhibit aims to illuminate the region's community through the art they make and collect One part time capsule, one part fine dining, the Pioneer Saloon is a beloved go-to for Ketchum locals and visitors alike. Located on Main Street, and affectionately called “the Pio,” the Pioneer Saloon opened in the 1940s as a casino, despite gambling being outlawed in Idaho. Originally called the Commercial Club, the gambling hub closed its doors after just a few years, and the American Legion turned it into a meeting hall. For a short time, the facility also served as a dry goods store until, in 1950, a man named Whitey Hirschman, turned it back into a casino. Containing decades of local lore and history, the saloon won a 2025 James Beard America's Classics Award. Today, the menu consists of hearty steaks, prime rib, ribs, and seafood, including Idaho trout. Order the signature “Jim Spud,” and you’ll get a hot baked potato with teriyaki beef, cheese, and other toppings. There’s even a “Hemingway Margarita” that pays homage to the famed author whose final resting place is in Sun Valley. Amid the rustic décor inside, you’ll find antiques and artifacts, including Hemingway’s hunting rifle, Western posters and artwork, a Native American canoe and arrowheads, and more. Despite Ernest Hemingway’s flamboyant, hard-living nature, the famed writer’s final resting place is a simple slab in a Sun Valley cemetery. Known for his heavy drinking, hunting, and womanizing lifestyle, Hemingway lived all over, from Spain and Cuba to Florida, penning works like, “The Sun Also Rises,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and the Pulitzer Prize-awarded “The Old Man and the Sea.” He visited central Idaho many times before moving to the area prior to his death in 1961. Placed alongside his wife, Mary, under two towering spruce trees, the grave is a modest rectangular marker including just the writer’s name and dates of birth and death. In addition to the expected flowers, fans also pay respects by leaving behind booze bottles, coins, matches, and pens. For a serene escape, head to the Sawtooth Botanical Garden in Ketchum. Located on five acres, the garden, which is also an educational non profit, centers on five major display gardens that represent the varied biomes in central Idaho. One must-see feature is the colorful Tibetan prayer wheel in the Garden of Infinite Compassion. It’s the only such wheel commissioned and blessed by the Dalai Lama in North America and the only one powered by flowing water. The 1,100-pound wheel is said to symbolize peace, healing and the dissemination prayers when turned. This free cultural museum in downtown Ketchum celebrates the rich and varied history of central Idaho, from its native people and immigrants to the iconic Bald Mountain and its effect on the local landscape. One exhibit at the Wood River Museum, “A Writer in the New Country: Hemingway in 1939,” highlights Ernest Hemingway’s first trip to Sun Valley, a place that was dear to the writer up until his death in 1961. Sheep shears, a telegraph key, and vintage skis are all part of the interactive Cabinet of Wonders, which houses important regional artifacts. At the museum’s entrance, another exhibit honors the Shoshone-Bannock native peoples, who first inhabited central Idaho. This history museum in Ketchum highlights the importance of ore wagons during the region’s rich mining boom of the 1880s. These sturdy wagons, donated to the museum by the Lewis family, whose Fast Freight Line was integral in transporting silver ore from remote mines to in-town railheads, are reportedly the only of their kind in existence. In honor of its mining roots, the city hosts a heritage festival, Wagon Days, every Labor Day weekend. The beloved event features live music, food vendors, cultural presentations, and culminates with the Big Hitch, a parade of these historic, non-motorized vehicles that served as the backbone of the region’s economy before the development of the railroads.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/idaho-sun-valley-fascinating-places
Science
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c042a48b37aaa594d6e94047ca24f43be26c42ccc7b7d3e22e8a3b4db5cf6111
2026-01-26T01:00:00-05:00
From Bay to Bar: Exploring Panama City’s Legendary Oyster Scene
Nothing tastes more definitively of the sea than oysters. Whether they’re served raw, steamed, baked, grilled, stewed, roasted, sautéd, or deep-fried, oysters offer diners a pure connection to the ocean. And every variety is distinct, with flavors and texture that speaks to the exact location and conditions where they grow. And no place celebrates this meaty, briny bivalve more thoroughly than Panama City, along the coast of Northwest Florida. The city’s storied fishing culture and its prime Gulf location make it the ideal destination for lovers of the finest and freshest seafood available. They take their seafood seriously here, serving the bivalves in dishes from simple to refined. Every summer, Panama City celebrates National Oyster Day with special events at Hunt’s Oyster Bar, including an oyster eating competition on August 5 and a chance to earn a Golden Oyster keepsake for trying your first oyster. And there is no shortage of opportunities to connect with that rich legacy any time of year. You can start anywhere along the Panama City Oyster Trail, a collection of local businesses that serve oysters in every conceivable preparation. Gene’s Oyster Bar, the oldest of the bunch, has been in the oyster business since 1932, according to a longtime employee. It’s been known as Gene’s since 1969, and the place is steeped in history, a classic example of the oyster bar, with shuckers who’ll prepare your food right in front of you. You can get a classic basket of fried oysters or tuck into a bowl of Grandma’s Oyster Stew. They also serve oysters baked by the dozen or half-dozen, with a variety of available toppings: butter, Cajun spices, bacon, cheddar, or parmesan cheese. But Gene’s most popular preparation is the simplest: freshly harvested from the waters of the Gulf, kept on ice, and shucked upon request. Saltine crackers, hot sauce, and lemon are all optional. Gulf oysters tend to be larger than those harvested in the northeast or the northwest. “What makes Gulf oysters stand out is the salinity,” said Collins Abrams, one of the owners of Hunt’s Oyster Bar and Seafood, which has been in operation since 1966. At Hunt’s, you can get your oysters steamed with butter, baked with bacon and jalapeño, or in the classic Oysters Rockefeller preparation, dressed with spinach, parmesan, and mozzarella. Yet like at Gene’s, the most popular option is freshly shucked raw oysters. “We’re not a restaurant that just serves oysters on a platter of ice,” Abrams says. “We’re an oyster bar, where the focus point is the bar, and the shucker is right in front of you.” It’s a distinctive experience, contributing to the lively atmosphere. The upstairs at Hunt’s overlooks the nearby St. Andrews Marina, while the downstairs is a blend of restaurant and honky-tonk, with a jukebox providing a customer-chosen soundtrack. The shuckers sometimes like to sing along. A talent for shucking may just be something that’s in the water around Panama City, as a local man, Honor Allen, has had multiple wins at the U.S. National Oyster Shucking Championship. And one of Panama City’s own won the 12 Days, 12 Ways celebration finale oyster eating contest in 2025. Four competitors sat down at Hunt’s to eat as many as possible in five minutes. The winner was Angel Colonel, who put down 111, far outpacing the runner-up, who slurped up 79. For diners who want their oysters along with excellent sunset views along the waterfront, Uncle Ernie’s Bayfront Bar and Grill, with its own signature preparation, fresh oysters sautéd in butter and garlic and topped with romano cheese. Bayou Joe’s, overlooking Massalina Bayou with 180-degree views of the water and stunning views of the sunset, leans into Cajun cooking, with blackened seasoning, a Cajun shrimp burger, and a New Orleans-style po’ boy sandwich that comes stuffed with fried oysters or shrimp. Another waterfront destination, Harrison’s Kitchen and Bar, offers a refined atmosphere and a local twist along with its raw oysters, a spin on the classic French mignonette sauce made with local Florida citrus. If these inspiring oyster eateries have you ready to cook up your own seafood feast, you can find everything you need steps away from the water at the Tarpon Dock Seafood Market, where the fish literally could not be any fresher. The market also serves a fine lunch menu, with po’ boys and baskets of fried oysters, in addition to raw ones. A dozen oysters and an ice-cold beer, served on the very dock where fishing vessels unload: It’s hard to get much better than that. Fresh Gulf seafood is always on the menu in Panama City, and recent news has made things even better for local oyster lovers. The Apalachicola Bay, not far from Panama City, was recently reopened for oyster harvesting after a five-year hiatus. Locals prize the Apalachicola oysters for a distinctive meatiness and a briny flavor. Though you’re bound to find something delicious for every craving wherever you roam along the Panama City Oyster Trail.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/from-bay-to-bar-exploring-panama-city-s-legendary-oyster-scene
Science
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2026-02-02T10:00:01+00:00
Melatonin gummies as sleep aids for children: What are the risks?
To eliminate bedtime struggles, a growing number of parents have turned to melatonin gummies, but these hormone supplements are largely unregulated. Columnist Alice Klein digs into the evidence on the risks of regularly using melatonin as a sleep aid for children
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2511657-melatonin-gummies-as-sleep-aids-for-children-what-are-the-risks/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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f9e3031b87bbc28fbedaaea35cfa90ddcd4f7ecf41421d72b9891d9acd3c4a15
2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
It would be a mistake to rush into an under-16 social media ban
Many countries are debating whether to follow Australia and ban social media for younger teenagers. But with more robust evidence on its harms coming, we shouldn't be too hasty
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935802-800-it-would-be-a-mistake-to-rush-into-an-under-16-social-media-ban/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T15:00:04+00:00
Why people can have Alzheimer's-related brain damage but no symptoms
Some people don’t develop dementia despite showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brain, and we're starting to understand why
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2512903-why-people-can-have-alzheimers-related-brain-damage-but-no-symptoms/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-02-02T08:00:39+00:00
CRISPR grapefruit without the bitterness are now in development
Gene-editing citrus fruits to make them less bitter could not only encourage more people to eat them, it might also help save the industry from a devastating plague  
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513798-crispr-grapefruit-without-the-bitterness-are-now-in-development/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-27T16:00:26+00:00
Nobel prizewinner Omar Yaghi says his invention will change the world
Chemist Omar Yaghi invented materials called MOFs, a few grams of which have the surface area of a football field. He explains why he thinks these super-sponges will define the next century
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2511141-nobel-prizewinner-omar-yaghi-says-his-invention-will-change-the-world/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-02-01T10:00:24+00:00
The best new popular science books of February 2026
Readers are spoiled for choice when it comes to popular science reading this month, with new titles by major names including Maggie Aderin and Michael Pollan
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513864-the-best-new-popular-science-books-of-february-2026/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
Bored of snakes and ladders? Some maths can help bring back the fun
While snakes and ladders is purely a game of chance, there is a way to add some strategy, says mathematician Peter Rowlett
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935801-100-bored-of-snakes-and-ladders-some-maths-can-help-bring-back-the-fun/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-28T16:00:23+00:00
Ancient humans were seafaring far earlier than we realised
Thousands of years before the invention of compasses or sails, prehistoric peoples crossed oceans to reach remote lands like Malta and Australia. Doing so meant striking out in unknowable conditions. What do such crossings tell us about ancient minds?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2511681-ancient-humans-were-seafaring-far-earlier-than-we-realised/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
A remarkable book on quantum mechanics reveals a really big idea
Where is physics headed? No one knows for sure, but Beyond the Quantum by Antony Valentini is a striking new book that reminds us what a big idea really looks like, finds Jon Cartwright
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935800-600-a-remarkable-book-on-quantum-mechanics-reveals-a-really-big-idea/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-26T16:00:33+00:00
The daring idea that time is an illusion and how we could prove it
The way time ticks forward in our universe has long stumped physicists. Now, a new set of tools from entangled atoms to black holes promises to reveal time’s true nature
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2511723-the-daring-idea-that-time-is-an-illusion-and-how-we-could-prove-it/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T17:30:04+00:00
Can we genetically improve humans using George Church’s famous list?
Columnist Michael Le Page delves into a catalogue of hundreds of potentially beneficial gene mutations and variants that is popular with transhumanists
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513878-can-we-genetically-improve-humans-using-george-churchs-famous-list/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T14:24:00+00:00
Elon Musk is making a big bet on his future vision – will it work?
Reports suggest that Elon Musk is eyeing up a merger involving SpaceX, Tesla and xAI, but what does he hope to achieve by consolidating his business empire?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513831-elon-musk-is-making-a-big-bet-on-his-future-vision-will-it-work/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T13:00:38+00:00
Yawning has an unexpected influence on the fluid inside your brain
Yawning and deep breathing each have different effects on the movement of fluids in the brain, and each of us may have a distinct yawning "signature"
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513692-yawning-has-an-unexpected-influence-on-the-fluid-inside-your-brain/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T13:00:32+00:00
The best new science fiction books of February 2026
We pick the sci-fi novels we’re most looking forward to reading this month, from a new Brandon Sanderson to the latest from Makana Yamamoto
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513659-the-best-new-science-fiction-books-of-february-2026/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T11:00:54+00:00
How an 1800s vaccine drive beat smallpox in Denmark in just 7 years
In the early 1800s, Denmark’s government, medical community, church leaders and school teachers all united to promote the new smallpox vaccine, which led to a remarkably quick elimination of the disease in the capital
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513279-how-an-1800s-vaccine-drive-beat-smallpox-in-denmark-in-just-7-years/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T09:22:58+00:00
Our verdict on Annie Bot: This novel about a sex robot split opinions
Members of the New Scientist Book Club give their take on Sierra Greer's award-winning science-fiction novel Annie Bot, our read for February – and the needle swings wildly from positive to negative
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513641-our-verdict-on-annie-bot-this-novel-about-a-sex-robot-split-opinions/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T09:15:39+00:00
Read an extract from Juice by Tim Winton
In this extract from the February read for the New Scientist Book Club, we meet the protagonist of Tim Winton’s Juice, driving across a scorched landscape in a future version of Australia
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513634-read-an-extract-from-juice-by-tim-winton/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-30T09:10:24+00:00
Tim Winton: 'Sometimes I think we use the word dystopia as an opiate'
The New Scientist Book Club's February read is Tim Winton's novel Juice, set in a future Australia that is so hot it is almost unliveable. Here, the author lays out his reasons for writing it – and why he doesn't see it as dystopian
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513626-tim-winton-sometimes-i-think-we-use-the-word-dystopia-as-an-opiate/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
New Scientist recommends pioneering artist Ryoji Ikeda's new work
The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935800-500-new-scientist-recommends-pioneering-artist-ryoji-ikedas-new-work/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
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2026-01-29T12:00:24+00:00
The universe may be hiding a fundamentally unknowable quantum secret
Even given a set of possible quantum states for our cosmos, it's impossible for us to determine which one of them is correct
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513267-the-universe-may-be-hiding-a-fundamentally-unknowable-quantum-secret/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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5bf4208969297cced3de1bfa9901b6a2efa27b6302cbde2409e85180d9076a84
2026-01-28T16:00:25+00:00
This virus infects most of us – but why do only some get very ill?
The ubiquitous Epstein-Barr virus is increasingly being linked to conditions like multiple sclerosis and lupus. But why do only some people who catch it develop these complications? The answer may lie in our genetics
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513522-this-virus-infects-most-of-us-but-why-do-only-some-get-very-ill/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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bb7748cf4363164fa4e9045f496bd06e709595a37c85530bca88904c8a01281a
2026-01-30T09:00:36+00:00
This doctor is on the hunt for people with first-rate faeces
Elizabeth Hohmann is very interested in faeces, and spends her days sifting through stools to find those that could make the biggest difference to other people's health
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2512644-this-doctor-is-on-the-hunt-for-people-with-first-rate-faeces/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
Fascinating but flawed book explores how sickness shapes our lives
Susan Wise Bauer's The Great Shadow investigates the effects of illness on individual lives and collective beliefs. It's a mixed bag, says Peter Hoskin
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935800-400-fascinating-but-flawed-book-explores-how-sickness-shapes-our-lives/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-29T23:30:54+00:00
AI-assisted mammograms cut risk of developing aggressive breast cancer
Interval cancers are aggressive tumours that grow during the interval after someone has been screened for cancer and before they are screened again, and AI seems to be able to identify them at an early stage
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513769-ai-assisted-mammograms-cut-risk-of-developing-aggressive-breast-cancer/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-29T19:00:56+00:00
Our lifespans may be half down to genes and half to the environment
A reanalysis of twin data from Denmark and Sweden suggests that how long we live now depends roughly equally on the genes we inherit, and on where we live and what we do
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513610-our-lifespans-may-be-half-down-to-genes-and-half-to-the-environment/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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977e48e8bf303451caef718492e79e836cd2954becd436103d883a024b7fd134
2026-01-29T16:00:03+00:00
Polar bears are getting fatter in the fastest-warming place on Earth
Shrinking sea ice has made life harder for polar bears in many parts of the Arctic, but the population in Svalbard seems to be thriving
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513712-polar-bears-are-getting-fatter-in-the-fastest-warming-place-on-earth/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-29T12:46:29+00:00
Faecal transplants could boost the effectiveness of cancer treatments
Adults with kidney cancer who received faecal microbiota transplants on top of their existing drugs did better than those who had placebo transplants as their add-on intervention
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513677-faecal-transplants-could-boost-the-effectiveness-of-cancer-treatments/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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ea52082e9de58187a8f68da94f1344b90aba5fc1b1ee7955f611fcfd028678f8
2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
How your health is being commodified by social media
From health tech developers to influencers, our health is being monetised – and we need to be aware of what's going on, says Deborah Cohen
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935802-400-how-your-health-is-being-commodified-by-social-media/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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c24ed17644e55de183c235b1499880b32733f0be655d400552c2042450aa0a4d
2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
Think of a card, any card – but make it science
Feedback has been informed about a "global telepathy study" which is currently taking place, but isn't entirely convinced about its merits
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935802-700-think-of-a-card-any-card-but-make-it-science/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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a9797f882aa8c4180478f380f1382c751fd28c2f01bfa9f12f2e7eb758591786
2026-01-28T18:00:00+00:00
Engaging look at friction shows how it keeps our world rubbing along
How much do you know about friction? Jennifer R. Vail's charming, if sometimes technical, "biography" of the force showcases its amazing and largely overlooked role in everything from climate change to dark matter, says Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935800-300-engaging-look-at-friction-shows-how-it-keeps-our-world-rubbing-along/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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b4f17bf4a769c59ba68c15813282d76f4825a244a193a2e5a36f99789b2a4b11
2026-01-28T16:00:14+00:00
Huge fossil bonanza preserves 512-million-year-old ecosystem
A treasure trove of Cambrian fossils has been discovered in southern China, providing a window on marine life shortly after Earth’s first mass extinction event
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513485-huge-fossil-bonanza-preserves-512-million-year-old-ecosystem/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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9deed6a18fa83c803c4b2acceb3d3aa673b6b111310da44ec90575a0374feb1b
2026-01-27T08:00:20+00:00
We have a new way to explain why we agree on the nature of reality
An evolution-inspired framework for how quantum fuzziness gives rise to our classical world shows that even imperfect observers can eventually agree on an objective reality
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2512894-we-have-a-new-way-to-explain-why-we-agree-on-the-nature-of-reality/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-28T11:12:53+00:00
We're getting closer to growing a brain in a lab dish
Clumps of cells known as organoids are helping us to understand the brain, and the latest version comes equipped with realistic blood vessels to help the organoids live longer
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513475-were-getting-closer-to-growing-a-brain-in-a-lab-dish/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-28T10:00:03+00:00
Most complex time crystal yet has been made inside a quantum computer
Using a superconducting quantum computer, physicists created a large and complex version of an odd quantum material that has a repeating structure in time
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513426-most-complex-time-crystal-yet-has-been-made-inside-a-quantum-computer/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-27T17:50:19+00:00
Amazon is getting drier as deforestation shuts down atmospheric rivers
The amount of rainfall in the southern Amazon basin has declined by 8 to 11 per cent since 1980, largely due to the impact of deforestation
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513298-amazon-is-getting-drier-as-deforestation-shuts-down-atmospheric-rivers/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-27T17:44:06+00:00
To halt measles' resurgence we must fight the plague of misinformation
The measles vaccine has prevented 60 million deaths since 2000. So why are so many children around the world missing out on it?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513398-to-halt-measles-resurgence-we-must-fight-the-plague-of-misinformation/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-27T16:00:30+00:00
Our brains play a surprising role in recovering from a heart attack
A newly discovered collection of neurons suggests the brain and heart communicate to trigger a neuroimmune response after a heart attack, which may pave the way for new therapies
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513314-our-brains-play-a-surprising-role-in-recovering-from-a-heart-attack/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-26T20:00:29+00:00
Stick shaped by ancient humans is the oldest known wooden tool
Excavations at an opencast mine in Greece have uncovered two wooden objects more than 400,000 years old that appear to have been fashioned as tools by an unknown species of ancient human
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509608-stick-shaped-by-ancient-humans-is-the-oldest-known-wooden-tool/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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58d7dcddb2bf930a2e3dea148ed11b64759b07bb6e3dcb49a951a4e8f1bb3827
2026-01-26T16:16:33+00:00
Menstrual pad could give women insights into their changing fertility
A woman's fertility can be partly gauged by levels of a hormone that reflects how many eggs she has. Now, scientists have built a strip that changes colour according to levels of this hormone, which is present in period blood, into a menstrual pad
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513226-menstrual-pad-could-give-women-insights-into-their-changing-fertility/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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3ff13d560ecc147ca60acdd8c006bf26b42df7afd5ceffe0ff769cffce8f46c5
2026-01-26T16:00:51+00:00
The best map of dark matter has revealed never-before-seen structures
JWST has created a map of dark matter that is twice as good as anything we have had before, and it may help unravel some of the deepest mysteries of the universe
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513184-the-best-map-of-dark-matter-has-revealed-never-before-seen-structures/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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9d89ff0c201febe7a2b6b9b7a699a8a7b68c14cf0aff38a9fc4b2b6bc58a9890
2026-01-26T12:00:28+00:00
Termination shock could make the cost of climate damage even higher
Solar geoengineering could halve the economic cost of climate change, but stopping it would cause temperatures to rebound sharply, leading to greater damage than unabated global warming
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513124-termination-shock-could-make-the-cost-of-climate-damage-even-higher/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-26T10:00:06+00:00
Embracing sauna culture can lower dementia risk and boost brain health
Columnist Helen Thomson investigates the neurological benefits of saunas, and how heat therapy can have anti-inflammatory effects throughout the body
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2512893-embracing-sauna-culture-can-lower-dementia-risk-and-boost-brain-health/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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b2491f1e05a34799e7e1eac35a49188c0bfb0c0dc544a36fe26d97683b5aea48
2026-01-21T18:00:00+00:00
How – and why – we chose the best 21 ideas of the 21st century
From smartphones to net zero, there has been no shortage of innovative ideas in the past 25 years, which is why we have taken a look back to choose the best
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935791-700-how-and-why-we-chose-the-best-21-ideas-of-the-21st-century/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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a6e83a0b0e9998ba0c93b830a9f7978b7b3e848b38035195a68b74f969c6ee3d
2026-01-26T08:00:32+00:00
Mars's gravity may help control Earth’s cycle of ice ages
Despite its small size, Mars seems to have a huge impact on the orbital cycles that govern Earth’s climate, especially those that cause ice ages
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2512635-marss-gravity-may-help-control-earths-cycle-of-ice-ages/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-21T18:00:00+00:00
How to spot the lunar X and V
Time it right each month, and you can spot two fleeting tricks of light on the lunar surface. Abigail Beall is planning ahead
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935791-600-how-to-spot-the-lunar-x-and-v/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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9019e44f2a7d8d4ac31e1a48f70b2d23af8b7e5484cc7ae44129ffe65aa2b785
2026-01-19T16:00:01+00:00
Realising the importance of our microbiome: Best ideas of the century
Humans have been inadvertently using microbes to influence our health for thousands of years. But only recently has the microbiome rocketed to the forefront of healthcare
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2508422-realising-the-importance-of-our-microbiome-best-ideas-of-the-century/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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5e01314fb255f863dfcb2dd6515bb3e140f75038f701fc311333a7af9419328d
2026-01-21T18:00:00+00:00
Let's nitpick about the physics of Stranger Things, not its ending
Feedback has seen all the fuss about the finale of Stranger Things, but would like to point out that if we're going to dissect the plot, we have bigger things to worry about
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935795-700-lets-nitpick-about-the-physics-of-stranger-things-not-its-ending/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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b3295d7ab8aa4ad641fcc7f8e8383c0d5e4073d4719a4c9ec475f40997554416
2026-01-19T16:00:07+00:00
Crowdsourcing Wikipedia’s encyclopedia: Best ideas of the century
The internet is typically defined by conflict. Yet a crowdsourced encyclopedia, open for anyone to edit, has transformed into one of the world's most essential knowledge hubs
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2510765-crowdsourcing-wikipedias-encyclopedia-best-ideas-of-the-century/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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df7b337655902bedbd41b1e0e3ebd8685dc1fc6353730218cc468a8137f4d457
2026-01-19T16:00:17+00:00
The totemic 1.5°C climate target: Best ideas of the century
Although we’re on course to cross 1.5°C of warming, the alliance of small island nations that revised our goal down from the 2°C threshold transformed global climate policy
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2508417-the-totemic-1-5c-climate-target-best-ideas-of-the-century/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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2026-01-19T16:00:00+00:00
We can rewrite our genetic code: Best ideas of the century
Our genomes are filled with errors that were once impossible to correct. But in CRISPR, we finally found an extraordinarily powerful tool for treating genetic disease – and perhaps making better versions of ourselves
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2510424-we-can-rewrite-our-genetic-code-best-ideas-of-the-century/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home
Science
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e770b4a7ae34f702ba8a9303f9cf00fdc2ef34e1f7aa5e41e63fa763883b2298
2026-02-02T11:00:00+00:00
Ribchester Helmet: A rare 'face mask' helmet worn by a Roman cavalry officer 1,900 years ago
The helmet has been a powerful symbol of Roman Britain since it was discovered over 200 years ago.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/ribchester-helmet-a-rare-face-mask-helmet-worn-by-a-roman-cavalry-officer-1-900-years-ago
Science
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d09d0173f385d7e50fffd740fd6d7bb3f8e764eb05d034f9cf46f7d738ba9dd1
2026-02-01T16:00:00+00:00
'It's similar to how Google can map your home without your consent': Why using aerial lasers to map an archaeology site should have Indigenous partnership
Aerial lidar is transforming how archaeologists map sites, but they should do it in tandem with Indigenous people.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/its-similar-to-how-google-can-map-your-home-without-your-consent-why-using-aerial-lasers-to-map-an-archaeology-site-should-have-indigenous-partnership
Science
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549aae2dedb3f1b340d4a2a46274bfcb670901e0ad19747eba43a923f4889af6
2026-02-01T15:00:00+00:00
'Nose-in-a-dish' reveals why the common cold hits some people hard, while others recover easily
Using a laboratory model of the human nose, scientists have investigated why the severity of common-cold infections varies so widely between individuals.
https://www.livescience.com/health/viruses-infections-disease/nose-in-a-dish-reveals-why-the-common-cold-hits-some-people-hard-while-others-recover-easily
Science
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2026-02-01T13:00:00+00:00
Earth is 'missing' lighter elements. They may be hiding in its solid inner core.
These chemical oddities may explain why Earth seems to be deficient in certain elements — and could prove useful in catalysts and more.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/earth-is-missing-lighter-elements-they-may-be-hiding-in-its-solid-inner-core
Science
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c1ea8071ef54bb6c6a912698621e48a2d5f56804e004297cfe9f7def4958fa4e
2026-02-01T12:00:00+00:00
Rare medieval seal discovered in UK is inscribed with 'Richard's secret' and bears a Roman-period gemstone
The Gosfield seal is made of a medieval silver seal bezel surrounding an ancient Roman gemstone.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/rare-medieval-seal-discovered-in-uk-is-inscribed-with-richards-secret-and-bears-a-roman-period-gemstone
Science
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3c3e48207ec24de55061d7cab43d998b88aa7fb2584ca4102bba14990e371461
2026-02-01T12:00:00+00:00
Oneisall Pet Air Purifier (PP02) review: Great value pick for dog and cat lovers
The Oneisall Pet Air Purifier is true to its word when it promises effective hair, odor and pet allergen removal — a rare quality in appliances under $90.
https://www.livescience.com/health/oneisall-pet-air-purifier-review
Science
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135eb747a13a6a542db1b0f11d4d42d3261ec9cbaeef5c4a23a113855f43aa4c
2026-02-01T11:00:00+00:00
Stellar nursery bursts with newborn stars in hauntingly beautiful Hubble telescope image — Space photo of the week
A new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows the Lupus 3 cloud in Scorpius bursting with young stars that are forming within collapsing clouds of gas and dust.
https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/stellar-nursery-bursts-with-newborn-stars-in-hauntingly-beautiful-hubble-telescope-image-space-photo-of-the-week
Science
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56f74bcccd47fc5f8b8ddb39b76fde359d9fe7f1feea2bbff5aad065d2dcd76b
2026-02-01T10:00:00+00:00
When were boats invented?
The oldest physical boat is a canoe from roughly 10,000 years ago, but evidence suggests humans have been using watercraft for at least 50,000 years.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/when-were-boats-invented
Science
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658a2a59093834ffe0617dee8033744d9964acf00c287543136bd320c580f6ae
2026-01-31T19:00:00+00:00
Lifespan may be 50% heritable, study suggests
A new study suggests that lifespan might be 50% heritable — although for now, it's hard to know if the finding applies across diverse populations.
https://www.livescience.com/health/ageing/lifespan-may-be-50-percent-heritable-study-suggests
Science
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b7af83c0541cdb48cfcf0991c76adc0d297637c66b52ef96bd3e95ee92efaf8a
2026-01-31T16:00:00+00:00
Astronomers spot 'time-warped' supernovas whose light both has and hasn't reached Earth
Will two rare supernovas finally tell us how fast the universe is expanding? Perhaps, but we'll have to wait for it for them to 'reappear'.
https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/astronomers-spot-2-warped-supernovas-whose-light-both-has-and-hasnt-reached-earth
Science
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3861dd5cfba5a50182e65ad6c5da2f0bdd081b5773403c2d59c8ff3f5385094e
2026-01-31T15:00:00+00:00
Life may have rebounded 'ridiculously fast' after the dinosaur-killing asteroid impact
After the asteroid smashed into Earth around 66 million years ago, it didn't take life that long to rebound, a new study finds.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/evolution/life-may-have-rebounded-ridiculously-fast-after-the-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-impact
Science
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aa743ca78b40146ad430191961185e56140e8eb9f1760388a37f52d0f01f7dc7
2026-01-31T14:00:00+00:00
'The problem isn't just Siri or Alexa': AI assistants tend to be feminine, entrenching harmful gender stereotypes
Virtual assistants mostly adopt 'female' personas, but all that does is exacerbate the notion that women are subservient.
https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/the-problem-isnt-just-siri-or-alexa-ai-assistants-tend-to-be-feminine-entrenching-harmful-gender-stereotypes
Science
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4b4565aad18e8cc09f40af1b01f6c49c4d5da2ec7cff9bb6d19d83b0e5a72bfe
2026-01-31T12:00:00+00:00
Best Garmin smartwatches for runners 2026, tried and tested
These are the best Garmin running watches you can buy in every category, from Fenix 8 and Enduro 3 to Forerunner 55.
https://www.livescience.com/health/exercise/best-garmin-smartwatches-for-runners
Science
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462184060028a9b65db5530d910e4ab3830e8fa76327342f4b9c96e039e55e89
2026-01-31T12:00:00+00:00
Science news this week: 'Cloud People' tomb found in Mexico, pancreatic cancer breakthrough, and the AI swarms poised to take over social media
Jan. 31, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.
https://www.livescience.com/technology/science-news-this-week-cloud-people-tomb-found-in-mexico-pancreatic-cancer-breakthrough-and-the-ai-swarms-poised-to-take-over-social-media
Science
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1bb5dfba01a55e121c7d5414748437ec11f4f66e7e8493f6623097bd1bc16e78
2026-01-31T11:30:00+00:00
Garmin Enduro 3 review: The longest-lasting sports watch series gets a price cut
If you’re after a high-end sports watch, minus the upkeep and attention-grabbing smartwatch tech, this one is for you.
https://www.livescience.com/health/exercise/garmin-enduro-3-review
Science
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