Life in Pripyat before, and the morning after, the Chernobyl disaster

Worm lizards, the green skeleton, and spectacular mirages. Email not displaying correctly? View in your browser. April 24, 2019 Before Chernobyl In the early hours of April 26, 1986, a nuclear accident took place during a safety test at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station near the city of Pripyat, in what was then the Soviet Republic of Ukraine. In this excerpt adapted from Adam Higginbotham’s new book, Midnight in Chernobyl, civic leaders and others begin to realize the gravity of the situation. Read More → Worm Lizard Down below the desert on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, worm lizards have adapted to life underground. Technically known as Bipes biporus, the creature has claws like a mole, eyes that look like poppy seeds, and a great strategy for evading predators and filling up on prey. Read more → OVIEDO, SPAIN The Green Skeleton A Bronze Age skeleton now has an eerie green hue after spending a millennia buried in a copper mine. Read more → Community Transit Wonders Whether it’s a castle in Budapest, Hungry’s historic funicular, or Wuppertal, Germany’s incredible hanging rail system, curious transit can be found just about anywhere. Tell us about the coolest public transit options you’ve ever taken. Share now → Spectacular Mirages You don’t have to journey into the Sahara to see a mirage. In fact, the most spellbinding and storied examples of this phenomenon happen in some of the coldest places on Earth and even in the balmy archipelagos of the Mediterranean. Read more → Bramhope, England Castle-Like Portal At the north entrance of the Bramhope Tunnel, a Gothic castle-like portal was built from sandstone rock. It has three side towers with turrets and a horseshoe-shaped archway decorated with a carving of a bearded man. Read more → Food & Drink Hot Cheese Sandwich Meet Massachusetts’s hot cheese sandwich, an enigma wrapped in a hamburger bun that’s creamy yet granular, cheesy but also saucy, and, all things considered, like no cheese sandwich you’ve ever had. Read more → From our friends at Quartz Celery Juice Craze Before celery juice was pegged as a miracle elixir that can cure a host of bodily ills, it was a forgettable crudité. But there was a time, not so very long ago, when celery enjoyed the elevated status now enjoyed by Tuscan kale or heirloom tomatoes. Read more → Visit AtlasObscura.com · View in Browser · Unsubscribe · See All Newsletters 61 Greenpoint Ave #622, Brooklyn, NY 11222