Enlarge / Abraham Lincoln’s pardon for Patrick Murphy, a Civil War soldier in the Union Army who was court-martialed for desertion. (credit: National Archives) There’s rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we’re once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting […]
Enlarge / 1775 portrait of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, by Jean-Baptiste-André Gautier-Dagoty. X-ray analysis of letters between the queen and a Swedish count revealed words that had been blacked out, rendering them illegible—until now. (credit: Public domain) Most people associate Marie Antoinette with the affair of the diamond necklace, “Let them eat cake!” and […]