Sarah Laskow's User Profile - Atlas Obscura

Sarah Laskow

Former Atlas Obscura staff writer

2015
joined atlas
obscura

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Found: A Giant Coral Reef at the Mouth of the Amazon River

Underneath the muddy waters, there was a reef all along.

The Rise of Pirate Libraries

Shadowy digital libraries want to hold all the world's knowledge and give it away for free.

original road trip

Found: A 1902 Motorcycle That May Be the First to Make It Across the U.S.

George A. Wyman's bike has been missing for decades.

Found: A Castaway on an Uninhabited Australian Island

He was very dehydrated.

Found: An Unusually Pristine, 400-Year-Old Shipwrecked Dress

It was preserved beneath sand.

Did a Coded Message Lead an American to a Lost Civilization in China?

In 2016, the odds of finding a "lost" civilization or even city seem low.

Found: A Magnificent Roman Villa, Hiding Under a British Backyard

The house would have been three stories tall and occupied by very rich Romans.

Found: A Ferrari Stolen Over 28 Years Ago

It still has only 45,000 miles on it.

The Man Who Got Hillary Clinton To Care About UFOs

The truth is out there, and this is John Podesta's last chance to make it public.

Found: The Lost Grave of One of Mexico's First Catholic Priests

Miguel de Palomares was buried in a repurposed Aztec temple and forgotten.

Found, With a Robot: A Loch Ness Monster

A man-made version of Nessie was lost decades ago.

Found: A Gruesome Painting That May Be an Authentic Caravaggio

It may never be clear who actually painted this version of Holofernes' beheading.

Victorians Wanted to Contact Aliens Using Giant Mirrors

It would have been very, very expensive, though.

Found: A Massive, Mysterious Rock Sphere in Bosnia

It was made by a totally natural process. Or, people. Or, aliens.

obscura day 2016

Witch Hunting for Dummies: The 15th-Century Witchcraft Manual

Cornell's witchcraft collection has an original copy of the Malleus Maleficarum, an early witch-hunting handbook.

Found: The Largest Python Ever Captured

She's 26 feet long and a whopping 550 pounds.

Found: Isaac Newton's Recipe for the Philosopher's Stone

Alchemy was still cool in Newton's lifetime.

obscura day 2016

What Are Bollards, and Why Are They So Beautiful?

Once you start looking for bollards, you will find them everywhere.

Found: A Forgotten Copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio

It was sitting in a library in a Scottish mansion.

obscura day 2016

Take a Peek at the World’s Greatest Witchcraft Movie Poster Collection

Cornell's collection has more than 600 witchy items.

Found: Unseen Film of Britain's Most Notorious Spy Explaining His Betrayal

Kim Philby spent decades inside MI6, spying for the KGB.

How Black Pepper Won Europe From a Tastier Pepper

Europe fell in love with long pepper before black pepper came to dominate spice cabinets.

Found: A New State of Matter

Quantum spin liquid is seen for the first time.

space exploration

This Man-Made ‘Meteor-Wrong’ Fell From Space

It wasn't a meteorite; it was a piece of space trash.