Elena Kazamia

1 week ago | nautil.us | Elena Kazamia

When you first enter Waterton Lakes National Park, just north of the Canadian border from Montana, you may be forgiven for not immediately examining the prairie grass.

3 weeks ago | nautil.us | Elena Kazamia

Under the blazing Africansun, I trained my binoculars on Najin and Fatu in Ol Pejeta, a wildlife reserve on the plains of northern Kenya. From a distance, the two rhinoceroses could be mistaken for boulders, propping up the sky. Alongside other travelers in 2021, I watched the pair graze peacefully in the field, their heads bowed down to the dry grass, munching in unison. Although we were far from the animals in a safari truck, everyone spoke in hushed tones.

Jan 22, 2025 | nautil.us | Elena Kazamia

It all started with a Roman pot. A new laser imaging technique revealed Greek inscriptions on the pot that had been hidden, which surprised archaeologists. But when Judyta Bak, a Polish archaeologist from Krakow, read the study, she didn’t care much about the pot. She wondered what would be revealed if she shone the laser on the 100 mummies she was studying in coastal Peru, some of which are more than a millennium old. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now .

Jan 8, 2025 | nautil.us | Elena Kazamia

Yoda, the legendary Jedi Master who hardly needs an introduction, spent his last days on Dagobah, a swamp-covered planet. When Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of the Star Wars saga visits him there in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, he finds Yoda sitting on a sunken log carpeted by moss. Yoda is pensive, the end of his walking stick submerged in the shallows, and a mist hovers low above the water. The vegetation is dense, the atmosphere mysterious.

Dec 13, 2024 | nautil.us | Elena Kazamia

Luis May Ku was intent on finding the plant. He felt certain that somewhere among the shrubs of his home village in Mexico or in the surrounding jungle grew the wild ch’oj. He needed the plant to extract indigo, a dye he could experiment with to unlock the recipe of “Mayan blue”—a pigment no longer available in the markets of the Yucatan peninsula, and a favorite color of the Mayan gods.   Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now .