| Your Weekly Escape |
| Extraordinary people, discoveries, and places in a time of turmoil |
| PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, ESA. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: JOSH LAKE The universe seems to be expanding faster than all expectations New evidence deepens a mystery around the Hubble constant, one of the most important numbers in cosmology. COSMIC MYSTERYSHARE |
| AFPTV, FROESCH/CHARLIER, VISUALFORENSIC UVSQ Is this the face of Mary Magdalene?Scientists have reconstructed a face based on an ancient skull—the famed Saint Maximin skull—long rumored to be the remains of one of the Catholic Church’s most infamous women.SEE THE SCIENCESHARE |
| ILLUSTRATION BY OWEN FREEMAN Here’s how we’re taking evolution into our own handsLike other species, humans are the products of millions of years of adaptation. But a lot has happened since we evolved from knuckle-walkers—and the demands posed by new challenges have altered our genetic makeup.SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVESHARE |
| BRIDGEMAN/ACI The French Revolution not only toppled a king—it also forged the metric systemAs revolution raged in the 1790s, French scientists replaced a chaotic system of weights and measures with a unified way to calibrate and calculate.SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVESHARE |
George SaundersWriter, on The Importance of Kindness |
| PHOTOGRAPH BY YONATAN SINDEL, FLASH90/REDUX How an ancient revolt sparked the Festival of LightsThe popularity of Hanukkah has surged in modern times. But its origins date back to the turbulent centuries following the death of Alexander the Great.READ ONSHARE |
| PHOTOGRAPH BY WILSON BENTLEY Here are some of the very first photos of snowflakesIn the late 1800s, a self-educated Vermont farmer named Wilson Bentley made the first successful image, or “photomicrograph,” of a single snowflake. This series of images, published in 1923, highlight the beauty and mystery of snow crystals.SEE THE PHOTOSSHARE |
| PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA Alaska islands may be part of single, massive volcanoPreliminary analysis of a far-flung island cluster suggests that what we thought were several small, independent volcanoes might actually be a single eruptive behemoth. |
