Jessica Leigh Hester, Atlas Obscura

Jessica Leigh Hester

Atlas Obscura

New York, United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • Atlas Obscura
  • Grist
  • Pacific Standard
  • CityLab
  • The Atlantic
  • Slate

Past articles by Jessica:

Descend Into the Sewers With London’s Fatberg-Busters

What can we learn from wipes, oils, and fats when they overwhelm the arteries of the modern world? → Read More

The Case for Pigeon-Watching

A new book is part ornithology guide, part ode to the misunderstood urban birds. → Read More

Get to Know New Zealand's Hugely Popular, Thrillingly Blue Mushroom

It is a key part of local culture, and looks like it was colored with a crayon. → Read More

The Dark Art of Displaying Deep-Sea Fish

How one museum keeps a rare Pacific footballfish looking sharp → Read More

Meet the Egyptian Scientists Studying 'Ghosts' of the Desert

The country's extensive fossils include early ancestors of whales, the largest mammals on the planet. → Read More

This ‘Cryptically Carnivorous’ Plant Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight, Waiting for Flesh

The western false asphodel has an appetite for insects, but it’s not a great time to be a meat-eating plant. → Read More

For Sale: Boston’s Skinny Spite House

This slim 19th-century home, just 10 feet wide, is seeking new owners who aren’t afraid to get close. → Read More

Why Are Farmers in Senegal Creating Gardens That Look Like Crop Circles?

A new project emphasizes practical designs that may stave off desertification. → Read More

Meet 'Firebows,' the Flat, Rainbow-Like Stacks That Appear in Sunny Skies

But whatever you do, don’t call them rainbows. → Read More

Students Are Getting Paid to Poop at a South Korean University

The project transforms human waste into biogas, and allows participants to buy everything from bananas to socks. → Read More

Spiders Covered Australian Shores With a Massive, Gossamer Blanket

The ghostly sight tells a story of escape, survival, and a post-flood feast. → Read More

My Pandemic-Era Quest to Solve the Mystery of Ponyhenge

To get to know a new town, start with its charming local oddities, like a herd of toy horses in a field. → Read More

Found: A Landlocked Message in a Bottle in a Detroit Train Station

More than a century ago, a couple of guys had some beer and an idea. → Read More

What in the World Is Sea Snot?

And why is it fouling the coast around Istanbul? → Read More

9 Wondrous Places Where Water Meets the Woods

From river-loving cypresses to soggy ancient forests. → Read More

How a Giant, Stinky, Delightful Corpse Flower Got to an Abandoned Gas Station

It was all thanks to a gardener, a wagon, and a sense of pandemic-era camaraderie. → Read More

What Secrets Lurk Within a Human-Sized Dome of Bat Guano?

Deep in a Jamaican cave, scientists are getting to the bottom of that question. → Read More

Walden Pond Is Full of Jellyfish, But Don't Panic

Meet the generally harmless translucent residents of Thoreau's favorite giant puddle. → Read More

Argentine Beaches Are Sometimes Speckled With Giant, Pearly Orbs

And that's bad news for the snails that produced them. → Read More

Scientists Want Your Help Stalking Billions of Cicadas

The Brood X bonanza is almost here, and ecologists will have a lot of work—and bugs—on their hands. → Read More