by Rachel KaufmanPublished in National Geographic News2010-02-03
Fragments of a lost ancient Roman law text have been rediscovered in the scrap paper used to bind other books.
The Codex Gregorianus, or Gregorian Code, was compiled by an otherwise unknown man named Gregorius at the end of the third century A.D. It started a centuries-long tradition of collecting [...]
by Rachel KaufmanPublished in National Geographic News2009-11-20
If Dr. Horrible really did have a “freeze ray,” he might stop the world by zapping it with ultraviolet light, new research suggests.
After feeding a light-sensitive chemical to transparent, microscopic worms called nematodes, scientists at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia were able to paralyze the tiny creatures by [...]
by Rachel KaufmanPublished in National Geographic News2009-08-17
Contrary to a recent TV cell phone ad, Dunkin’ Donuts isn’t likely to set up shop in space any time soon.
But if it did, the donut chain might like to build next to WASP-17b, a newfound planet that’s puffed up to be roughly as dense as a foam coffee [...]
“Bacon cereal.” “Bacon lollipop.” “Bacon spaghetti.” “Bacon bread.” “Bacon coffee.” “Bacon beer.”
In a sane world, none of these exact phrases would return any hits when plugged into Google. This is not a sane world.
BRANDON GREEN RESOLVED to try his hand at real estate after watching a late-night infomercial in 2000. Bored with his job in sales as an IT recruiter in Silver Spring, Green paid $19.95 for Carlton Sheets’s “No Down Payment” video, and applied himself. “My first project was a complete overhaul of a house, 727 11th Street, NE,” he recalls.
Church Hill is changing. The historical Richmond neighborhood — site of old mansions, cast-iron work on porches, cobbled streets and the church where Patrick Henry made his impassioned cry for liberty or death — deteriorated rapidly in the mid-20th century. “Church Hill was the drug-infested shooting gallery” of Richmond, says John Johnson, president of the Church Hill Association. But in the past few decades, an aggressive historic preservation effort (and tempting tax breaks) have spurred revitalization and development.
WHEN JUDITH MATLOFF moved back to the U.S. after a career in foreign journalism, she dreamed of buying a home — and did just that in 2000. What she didn’t count on was that her dream brownstone — four floors, almost 5,000 square feet — in West Harlem would be surrounded by crack houses and [...]
EARLY SUNDAY MORNING at the West End farmer’s market, before it gets too hot, shoppers strolling from stall to stall can take their pick of bok choy, bell peppers, and Ozark plums.
The usual suspects are here: joggers with dogs, women with armloads of flowers wrapped in newspaper, and at the far end, Sara Guerre explains [...]
ONE MIGHT BE TEMPTED to think that “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko” ($15, Riverhead Trade) is a joke, or at the very least, mis-shelved. What’s this comic book doing in the career section, anyway? But author Daniel Pink, who last year received a fellowship to study manga (Japanese comics) in Japan, is serious about his [...]
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