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A variety of animals, from birds to mammals, including lemurs, have been observed eating fermented fruit, apparently to get a little tipsy.

From Naming Each Other to Getting Drunk, Animals Are More Like Us Than We Thought

We're not so special after all.

Robin George Andrews July 24, 2024

Old furniture fills the interior of the Majestic Theatre in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The American Theaters That Have Taken Their Final Bow

There may be no encore in store for these abandoned vaudeville halls and movie palaces.

Matthew Christopher June 14, 2024

Bali's Massive Stone Sarcophagi Included Global Grave Goods

Mirrors from China, glass beads from Roman Egypt, and other treasures from far-flung places accompanied ancient Balinese elites to the afterworld.

Nicky Nielsen June 5, 2024

A huge crowd enjoying "base-ball" in May of 1886.

Before ‘Fans,’ There Were ‘Kranks,’ ‘Longhairs,’ and ‘Lions’

How do fandoms gain their names?

Elizabeth Minkel May 30, 2024

A sign requesting information on big cats in West Sussex.

The Enduring Enigma of Alien Big Cats

What sightings of lions in Illinois and pumas in Australia tell us about our relationship with the natural world.

Colin Dickey May 30, 2024

The first ever crossword puzzle was published in December 1913 on the 'Fun' page of <em>The New York World</em>. Since then, millions more have been published around the world.

How Crossword Creators Make our Favorite Word Games

We sat down with crossword editors to talk Viking words, pizza rat, and the joy of wordplay.

Adrienne Raphel May 30, 2024

An interferogram of Kathmandu shows the amount of land deformation after a 2015 quake: Each color represents about an inch of deformation. In areas that appear speckled, including the large area on the right, the ground deformed more than three feet.

Plate Tectonics Has a Surprise Silver Lining

Without this restless geologic process, which triggers destructive earthquakes, Earth would not be habitable.

Robin George Andrews May 29, 2024

A powerful X3.9 solar flare, visible at lower right, erupts on May 10 in an image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Why Is the Sun So Active Right Now?

Northern lights in the American South, clusters of huge geomagnetic storms—the Sun is throwing a tantrum right on schedule.

Rebecca Boyle May 14, 2024

Inside Memorial Auditorium in Gary, Indiana. The auditorium was one of several landmarks damaged by fires set in the late 1990s.

What Can We Learn From the Ruins of Gary, Indiana?

Exploring deindustrialization.

Matthew Christopher May 3, 2024

A dramatic 2020 eruption of Kīlauea was nothing compared with Indonesia's Toba supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago, the largest eruption of the past 2.5 million years.

How Indonesia’s Toba Volcano Changed Human Evolution

The massive supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago has been blamed for nearly killing off our species. The emerging truth is much more interesting.

Gemma Tarlach April 29, 2024

Hailing from the Himalayas, Purple Karma Barley sat, dormant, in a seed vault since 1924—until OSU revived it.

Turn Your Garden Into an 'Ark of Taste' for Nearly Lost Plants

Slow Food’s annual "Plant a Seed Kit" encourages home-gardeners to cultivate rare and endangered crops.

Sarah Lohman April 23, 2024

Remains of whalers' wooden coffins and gravestones at Smeerenburg, in the northwest region of the Svalbard Archipelago.

Svalbard's Lonely Whaler Graves Included Burial Kits With Pieces of Distant Homes

For centuries, the cruel industry decimated entire whale species—and claimed countless human lives. Whalers arrived prepared for their own deaths.

Nicky Nielsen April 17, 2024

A 17th-century engraving depicts a star fort coming under siege.

Star Forts Are Military History, and the Base of Some Strange Conspiracy Theories

Examining why these ubiquitous, obsolete fortifications carry an air of mystery.

Colin Dickey April 15, 2024

Scio kolaches often come with apricot or sweet poppy-seed fillings.

Saving the Scio Kolache

A local take on a Czech pastry is fading along with the community that birthed it.

Sarah Lohman April 12, 2024

Even from 140 million miles away, we are impacted by our smaller planetary neighbor.

We Know the Moon Makes Tides, but What About Mars?

Recent research suggests that our planetary neighbor causes a stir deep under the ocean.

Robin George Andrews April 2, 2024

Both speed of speech and information density have an impact on how "fast" a language can be.

What's the Fastest Language in the World?

Theansweriscomplicated.

Dan Nosowitz April 2, 2024

Upwords rides into the next round, but does it have staying power?

Atlas Obscura’s Ultimate Word Game Tournament

From Password to Mad Libs to Wordle, we pit our favorite lexical pastimes head to head.

Adrienne Raphel March 29, 2024

Burial 19, or B19, contained the remains of a large dog and newborn infant girl.

When Did Dogs Become Our Best Friends?

A poignant, 2,000-year-old burial in northern Italy could be the latest evidence of an ancient friendship.

Gemma Tarlach March 20, 2024