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politics

In 1972, Two Women Ran For President. It Didn't Go Well.

Even feminists hesitated to support a female candidate.
Sarah Laskow July 28, 2016
radioactive

The Experimental Nuclear Reactor Secretly Built Under the University of Chicago

Chicago Pile-1, the first reactor to reach criticality, was built under a football field.
Eric Grundhauser July 27, 2016
history

The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

This pioneer of weather management was pelted with insults and trash.
Michael Waters July 27, 2016
nature

The World's Most Lightning-Prone Place Has the World's First Lightning Forecasts

The cause of the Catatumbo Lightning is no longer a mystery.
Sarah Laskow July 27, 2016
Ripe mangoes
food

The 9,000-Mile Sea Journey of an Irradiated Indian Mango

Can the delicate mango ever become a seafaring fruit?
Atlas Obscura July 26, 2016
animals

The Joy of Pronking

A deer can effortlessly jump high into the air; so can a flea. But are humans capable of the same tasks with our dumb legs?
Sarah Laskow July 25, 2016
Convention events
politics

An Exclusive Look at the Leaked PR Agenda of the 1936 Republican National Convention

80 years ago, GOP tactics included "racial choirs."
Atlas Obscura July 22, 2016
Manitoba's Dorothy Lake, one of the 10% of the province's lakes that do have an official name.
lakes

The Perplexing Problem of Manitoba's Nameless Lakes

There are some 90,000 anonymous lakes.
Cara Giaimo July 22, 2016
maps

I Would Walk 500 Miles, and I Would Walk 500 More, Just to Be the Man Who Walked 1,000 Miles Out on the Ocean Floor

It would be a hard 3,000 miles.
Sarah Laskow July 22, 2016
crime

What It's Like to Be an Underwater Crime Scene Investigator

Welcome to CSI: Lakes, Rivers, and Oceans.
Ella Morton July 22, 2016
shipwrecks

I Made a Shipwreck Expert Watch The Little Mermaid and Judge Its Nautical Merits

How realistic was the shipwreck Ariel looted?
Sarah Laskow July 21, 2016
A tiger shark.
crime

How Did a Shark in a Sydney Aquarium End Up With a Human Arm?

It opened its mouth and a murder mystery came out.
Matt Soniak July 21, 2016
underwater

The People Who Suffer From Thalassophobia, or Fear of the Sea

We talk to a hypnotist about curing the phobia about what lies beneath the water's edge.
Eric Grundhauser July 21, 2016
The most destructive part of the blast was the cloud of radioactive water.
shipwrecks

Decades Ago, the U.S. Military Set Off a Nuke Underwater, And It Went Very Badly

So they tried it four more times.
Sarah Laskow July 19, 2016
world record

A Homemade Speedboat Has Held the Deadly Water Speed Record Since 1978

Ultra-fast boating is a dangerous game.
Eric Grundhauser July 19, 2016
exploration

At the First GOP Convention, the Party Chose a Rich Mutineer as Their Candidate

John C. Frémont wanted to be governor of California a little too badly.
Sarah Laskow July 18, 2016
A typically opulent 1880s soda fountain, in a drugstore in British Columbia.
machines

Victorians Drank Soda Out Of Monstrous Gilded Machines

The 19th century saw a soda fountain arms race.
Cara Giaimo July 15, 2016
Canadian customs at Pohénégamook, which shares the border with Estcourt Station, Maine.
border crossings

The Incredible Complications of Living Atop the U.S.-Canada Border

The tough, restricted lives of the dozen people whose homes lie in both Maine and Quebec.
Kevin Williams July 15, 2016