Tech

Reconstructing Roman industrial engineering

Enlarge / Given the present state of the watermills, reconstructing their operation wasn’t simple. (credit: Wikimedia Commons) The Colosseum’s arches, the Pantheon’s dome, the Barbegal watermill’s… elbow flumes? Roman architecture is known for elegance and ingenuity. A curious relic, pieced together in a museum basement, shows that Roman design also boosted the efficiency of an […]

Tech

Indigenous forest gardens remain productive and diverse for over a century

Enlarge / From some perspectives, the forest garden doesn’t stand out from the landscape. (credit: Chelsey Armstrong) In the 1930s, an archeologist from the Smithsonian wrote a short paper remarking on the exquisite vegetation around First Nation villages in Alaska. The surroundings were filled with nuts, stone fruit, berries, and herbs—several non-native to the area […]