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Author Archive

The Archaeobotanist Searching Art for Lost Fruit

by Alice Riddell on March 16th, 02020

As Vittoria Traverso writes for Atlas Obscura, Isabella Dalla Ragione brings art and nature together in her search for the forgotten fruits of Northern Italy. By combing through clues in ancient paintings and manuscripts, Ragione has revealed . . .   Read More

The Thames at Low Tide Reveals a Treasure Trove of Historical Tokens

by Alice Riddell on March 11th, 02020

As recently reported by Megan Specia for The New York Times, The Thames in London is hiding historical secrets on its shore, and certain explorers are eager to uncover them. At low tide, the river peels back to expose a beachy foreshore, and with it, long forgotten antiques and partially buried objects, dating as . . .   Read More

Discovery of Archaeological ‘Megasities’ Resituates Research on Early Urban Areas

by Alice Riddell on March 5th, 02020

New research, as reported by Science News, suggests our first cities were more expansive and socially egalitarian than originally thought. Beneath Nebelivka, a small Ukrainian village in Eastern Europe, newly discovered ancient remnants expose what is known archaeologically as a ‘megasite.’ These sites . . .   Read More

Photographer Captures the Surprising Beauty of Doomsday Seed Vaults

by Alice Riddell on March 4th, 02020

Artist and professor, Dornith Doherty, has traveled to Svalbard, Norway and to Sussex, England, among others, to document the ethereal nature of the seeds stored in these sub zero temperature vaults. The Millennium Seed Bank in Sussex now contains more than 2.3 billion seeds, spanning more than 40,000 different species. As reported . . .   Read More

3-D Digital Model Brings Ancient Athens Back to Life

by Alice Riddell on February 21st, 02020

As recently reported by the Smithsonian Magazine, a new 3-D model, created by photographer-animator Dimitris Tsalkanis, transports us digitally back into 3,000 years of ancient Athenian history. The free site, Ancient Athens 3-D, offers an online immersive experience through seven different time periods, from 01200 B.C., through to the . . .   Read More

2,000 Year-Old Date Seeds Finally Sprout

by Alice Riddell on February 19th, 02020

Six date-palm trees in Israel have sprouted two millennia after their seeds came into existence. As Sarah Zhang writes for The Atlantic, the collection of seeds recently planted all germinated in ancient archaeological sites and have been radiocarbon dated back to around A.D. 00047. The plants, named Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, . . .   Read More

“Phossils”: The Future of Art and Technology in a Post-Sapien World

by Alice Riddell on February 15th, 02020

Nathaniel Stern’s exhibition “The World After Us: Imaging Techno-Aesthetic Futures” invites us to fast forward to the future. Stern, a professor of art, design, and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, started this project as an exploration into the technological eventualities of a post-human world. What happens to our devices . . .   Read More

Neural Networking Upscales 01895 Short Film

by Alice Riddell on February 14th, 02020

An early example of moving images, Lumière Brothers’ 01895 short “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat”, has been revitalized and upscaled by Youtuber Denis Shiryaev. . .   Read More

Eunoia: The Internet’s Dictionary of Untranslatable Words

by Alice Riddell on February 12th, 02020

Created in just 24 hours by Steph Smith, Eunoia offers hundreds of untranslatable words in a useful and accessible online dictionary. Eunoia is itself an untranslatable word meaning a “well-mind” or “beautiful thinking.” The user can search Eunoia’s database by “language, tag, or the word itself. There are over 500 words in . . .   Read More

Genetically Engineered Moths a Success in Cornell Crop Protection Study

by Alice Riddell on February 10th, 02020

A recent article in phys.org reports on a newly-published study on the use of genetically engineered moths to increase crop protection. The Cornell study documents the successful application and release of self-limiting, genetically engineered diamondback moths to fields of brassica crops.  “The diamondback moth, also known as Plutella xylostella, is highly . . .   Read More