Sarah Laskow's User Profile - Atlas Obscura

Sarah Laskow

Former Atlas Obscura staff writer

2015
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countdown to the eclipse 2024

Eclipse Maps Entered a Golden Age Thanks to Edmond Halley

In the 18th century, the English astronomer created a new appreciation for these celestial events.

countdown to the eclipse 2024

Why the April 2024 Total Solar Eclipse May Blow Your Mind

How a jaw-dropping experience like this one can change the rest of your life.

In Poland, Drowning the Pagan Goddess Marzanna Ushers in Spring

A straw effigy of the winter goddess is burned and then submerged in chilly waters.

disappearing world

The Haunting Ghost Forests of Maryland's Eastern Shore

Rising seas are claiming land, changing lives, and transforming our relationship with nature.

The Grim History Hidden Under a Baltimore Parking Lot

After an African-American cemetery was bulldozed, families wondered what happened to the graves.

October 25, 2019

Why All of Upstate New York Grew Up Eating the Same Barbecue Chicken

The true legacy of the Cornell professor who invented the chicken nugget.

illuminated manuscripts

Medieval Jews Celebrated Passover With Bird-Human Hybrids

An illuminated manuscript interpreted the prohibition on graven images in a creative way.

A Rare and Striking Butterfly Is Named for a Pioneering Female Naturalist

Maria Sibylla Merian watched these beautiful insects more closely than anyone else of her time.

December 6, 2018

The Mysterious Phenomenon of Seals With Eels in Their Noses

The Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program found yet another pinniped with an unusual nasal inhabitant.

December 5, 2018

For Sale: Pre-Prohibition Whiskey, Once Hidden in a Vault Behind a Bookcase

December 3, 2018

How Giant, Intelligent Snails Became a Marker of Our Age

Ages from now, giant snails could be one of the lasting signs of human influence on Earth.

November 29, 2018

american revolution

In Its First Decades, The United States Nurtured Schoolgirl Mapmakers

Education for women and emerging nationhood, illustrated with care and charm.

November 28, 2018

Musical Arrangements Made at Auschwitz Have Been Uncovered in an Archive

Polish political prisoners played a song called “The Most Beautiful Time of Life" for the SS.

November 27, 2018

England, But New: How John Smith's 1616 Map Helped Define America

The name "New England" was like a colonial real estate ad.

November 20, 2018

Is There Anybody Out There… Keeping Track of the Weird Stuff We Send Into Space?

This catalog attempts to figure out what we're telling the rest of the universe about ourselves.

November 19, 2018

Found: Weapons From World War II, Uncovered by a Hurricane

A North Carolina beach had secrets from the 1940s buried deep in the sand.

November 19, 2018

A Massive Meteorite Crater Has Been Hiding Under Greenland's Ice

It ranks in the top 25 largest impact craters ever discovered.

November 15, 2018

The Sun Set Off 4,000 Sea Mines During the Vietnam War

Only now do scientists fully understand just how strong a 1972 solar storm was.

November 14, 2018

Why There's No Place Quite Like the American Garage

The garage is a symbol of suburbia, a site of rebellion, and a very strange room.

November 13, 2018

Glimpses of Lost Railway Journeys of the Past

A new book collects 33 routes that went off the rails.

November 12, 2018

extinct animals

What in the World Was a Key-Footed Glyptodon?

It had a shell as big as a car.

November 9, 2018

Ancient Celts Embalmed the Severed Heads of Their Enemies

New evidence backs up the stories that Greeks told about the fearsome Celtic tribes.

November 8, 2018

Where on Earth Can You Put a Giant Telescope?

Why astronomers keep putting them in the same places.

What It Took to Get Impeached in the 14th Century

You basically had to sell a castle to the enemy.

November 7, 2018