In the 1500s, Mail Disinfection Was Really, Really Weird
Past epidemics left behind a paper trail of stained, scorched, and punctured letters.
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Wellcome Collection The Rise and Fall of an All-Star Crew of Jewel Thieves
They were highly sophisticated. The local police seemed helpless. Then a retired septuagenarian detective stepped in.
Illustration by Chris Chester / The Atlantic; Photos courtesy of Jim Page & Tony Granims / Getty Meet the Safecracker of Last Resort
Charlie Santore sees Los Angeles from the inside, by breaking into safes whose owners can no longer unlock them.
Angie Smith How Will Police Solve Murders on Mars?
Mars P.D. will have to deal with new blood-spatter patterns, different body decay rates, and space-suit sabotage—and they won’t be able to fire guns indoors.
Matt Chinworth Drone Cops Take Flight in Los Angeles
The L.A. County Sheriff has deployed a quadcopter drone for rescue and reconnaissance. But will the public accept that these aerial officers come in peace?
Angie Smith Los Angeles, America’s Future Spaceport
The city of stars was once a major hub for aerospace. Soon it might be again.
Reuben Wu The City That Remembers Everything
The smart city is moving beyond cameras and microphones to stranger surveillance tools.
Slaven Vlasic / Julien Behal / PA Images / Getty / Reuters / Thanh Do / The Atlantic Parking for Gold
Competitive parking may not inspire the popular imagination like NASCAR or the NBA, but a handful of enthusiasts are hoping to change that. Welcome to the National Valet Olympics.
Alex Dos Diaz Inside LAX's New Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Unit
If the airport’s experimental team succeeds, every critical infrastructure site in the world might soon have its own in-house intel operation.
The Satellites That Could Trace the Ripples of the Cosmos
The eLISA space mission aims to detect gravitational waves with an enormous laser triangle and floating gold cubes.
eLISA Science / The Atlantic
