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Mercury, Nevada

Nevada National Security Site

A desert journey through atomic history.
Saint Andrews, Scotland

Gregory's Meridian Line

Scotland's claim to the prime meridian was laid 200 years prior to the one in Greenwich.
Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain

Paseo de las Estrellas de la Ciencia

The only open-air "Hall of Fame" for science stars in the world.
volcanoes

Kīlauea Won't Stop Erupting

In this episode of Untold Earth, learn what lessons one of the most active and accessible volcanoes on Earth can teach us about our planet's past, present, and future.
Atlas Obscura December 4, 2025
Ireland

William Sealy Gosset Plaque

Honoring the Guinness brewer whose quest for the perfect pint led to the creation of the t-test, a cornerstone of modern statistics.
Dublin, Ireland

Broom Bridge

The graffiti that birthed modern algebra.
Portland’s mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers make it a paradise for roses.
botanical gardens

A Botanical Showdown Planted the Seed for Portland’s International Rose Test Garden

Portland, Oregon is known as the City of Roses, but clinching this title was no easy feat.
A glass armonica from the 18th century.
science

The Glass Armonica: The Strange History of the Instrument Benjamin Franklin Invented

Invented by one of America’s Founding Fathers, this musical instrument became the center of a medical malpractice scandal.
The Podcast Team August 26, 2025
Coimbra, Portugal

Gabinete de Curiosidades (Cabinet of Curiosities)

A Portuguese museum display features a bizarre assortment of objects.
Biosphere 2 campus (2016)
science

Biosphere 2: How Volunteers Survived for 2 Years in an Airtight Habitat

This 1991 experiment spawned a wave of new research about engineering, agriculture, and space exploration.
The Podcast Team July 11, 2025
Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon in its new location in 2020
mummies

The Jeremy Bentham Auto-Icon: Why This Legendary Philosopher Put His Own Body on Display

You can visit the father of utilitarianism anytime you like. But will it make you happy?
The Podcast Team July 3, 2025
Beneath downtown Minneapolis, Schieks Cave has surprisingly warm groundwater, evidence of a subterranean heat island.
subterranean

Schieks Cave Below Minneapolis Contains a Lake of Warm Sewage

An urban explorer ventured deep below the bustling streets of downtown Minneapolis. He discovered more than he bargained for.
The Podcast Team June 26, 2025
Brno, Czechia

Hrachovina

A metal forest of peas pays tribute to the founding father of genetics.
The plants around Liz Dauncey in this photo are not poisonous, but many common garden and houseplants are.
poison

Are Some of Your Favorite Houseplants Poisonous? AO Wants to Know.

Toxicologist Liz Dauncey invites you to admire the marvels of plants (carefully).
Andrew Coletti April 18, 2025
Coimbra, Portugal

Cabinet of Curiosities at the University of Coimbra

One of the oldest universities in the world exhibits thousands of specimens from its 700-year-old collection.
Taichung City, Taiwan

Wufeng Mushroom Museum

An unassuming museum offers a deep dive into everything about mushrooms, from cultivation innovations to fungi that "talk."
Should a snake climb along a branch where a baby anole sleeps, the lizard will wake up and drop to the ground to escape.
islands

Cracking Open Evolution’s Black Box on 'Lizard Island'

On an island in South Florida, scientists use trials to see how natural selection drives evolution in real time.
James T. Stroud April 14, 2025
An artist's rendering of <em>Baminornis</em> showing the position of the fossil bones discovered, including the fused tailbone.
dinosaurs

A Surprising New Tail From Jurassic China

The discovery of a fossil species suggests that the story of birds started about 20 million years earlier than we thought.
Andrew Coletti April 10, 2025