Ariel Sabar

Ariel Sabar

 

Smithsonian correspondent Ariel Sabar is also the author of My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kindle single The Outsider: The Life and Times of Roger Barker.

Karen L. King, the Hollis professor of divinity, believes that the fragment's 33 words refers to Jesus having a wife

The Inside Story of a Controversial New Text About Jesus

According to a top religion scholar, this 1,600-year-old text fragment suggests some early Christians believed Jesus was married—possibly to Mary Magdalene

Overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Bethsaida was a day’s walk from Nazareth. When Jesus returned to his boyhood hometown to preach, the Gospels say he was rejected by a mob.

Unearthing the World of Jesus

Surprising archaeological finds are breaking new ground in our understanding of Jesus’s time—and the revolution he launched 2,000 years ago

For the first time, Florian Engert and his team mapped every firing neuron in a living animal.

How a Transparent Fish May Help Decode the Brain

An outspoken Harvard neuroscientist is tackling the wondrous challenge of understanding the workings of the brain

How to Predict a Famine Before It Even Strikes

Hundred of miles about Earth, orbiting satellites are becoming a bold new weapon in the age-old fight against drought, disease and death

At least 300 buildings at Tajalei village in Sudan's Abyei region were intentionally destroyed by fire, according to Satellite Sentinel Project analysis of this DigitalGlobe satellite image, taken March 6, 2011 and analyzed by UNITAR/UNOSAT and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

The U.N. Uses Satellites to Track Humanitarian Crises Around the World

With help from George Clooney, the United nations embarks on a new frontier in monitoring the world from above

The Mystery of Why This Dangerous Sand Dune Swallowed a Boy

When a boy suddenly disappeared into a sand dune, a scientist embarked on a quest to find out where he went

"Map with Ship" has the informality of a "napkin sketch on vellum," says map expert John Hessler, suggesting its maker was not a trained cartographer.

Did Marco Polo "Discover" America?

Maps attributed to the 13th-century traveler sketch what looks like the coast of Alaska

In the public imagination, heat waves remain a B-list natural disaster.

Forecasters Will Soon Be Able to Predict Heat Waves Weeks in Advance

In the public imagination, heat waves remain a B-list natural disaster, but in reality, they are deadly

Behind the Unceasing Allure of the Rubik’s Cube

The 80’s fad should’ve fallen into obscurity—somehow it didn’t

When Collectors Cut Off Pieces of the Star-Spangled Banner As Keepsakes

For years patriots clamored for swatches of the enormous flag that raised spirits at “dawn’s early light”

Ozcan (in his UCLA lab) started a company, Holomic, to market microscope-outfitted smartphones, which he calls “a telemedicine tool” for improving health care in the developing world.

Inside the Technology That Can Turn Your Smartphone into a Personal Doctor

The fantastic tricorder device that “Bones” used to scan aliens on “Star Trek” is nearly at hand—in your cellphone

Electronics That Can Melt in Your Body Could Change the World of Medicine

John Rogers, a revolutionary materials scientist, is pushing the boundaries of the medical world

St. Andrew’s church in Glenview, Illinois.

How to Save a Dying Language

Geoffrey Khan is racing to document Aramaic, the language of Jesus, before its native speakers vanish

The "Mary" in the controversial text, King says, may be Mary Magdalene, who was present at the Crucifixion.

UPDATE: The Reaction to Karen King’s Gospel Discovery

When a divinity scholar unveiled a papyrus fragment that she says refers to Jesus’ “wife,” our reporter was there in Rome amidst the firestorm of criticism

The pogo stick remained essentially unchanged for 80 years. Recently, three inventors have created powerful new gravity-defying machines that can leap over (small) buildings in a single bound.

How the Pogo Stick Leapt From Classic Toy to Extreme Sport

Three lone inventors took the gadget that had changed little since it was invented more than 80 years ago and transformed it into a gnarly, big air machine

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