Stories

The feed, newest first

Everything we have published, in the order we published it. No listicles, no round-ups — one subject per entry, followed as far as the sources allow.

See Wikimedia Commons file pageWikimedia Commons (free licence — Commons requires CC BY-SA or public domain for all hosted media; exact terms on file page)
Places
Avenue of the Baobabs
On a dirt road in western Madagascar, a few dozen trees older than most nations rise where a forest used to be.
MadagascarTrees estimated to have grown for 800+ years; formally protected since 20156 min read
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American HistoryCC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)
Science
The Antikythera Mechanism
A corroded lump of bronze pulled from a Roman-era shipwreck turned out to be a geared astronomical calculator more sophisticated than anything else built for the next thousand years.
GreeceRecovered in 1901 from a wreck dated c. 70-60 BCE; mechanism itself dated to roughly 150-100 BCE7 min read

Avenue of the Baobabs