What’s the difference between a “street” and an “avenue”?
Seth R. Digel
A street is a basic paved traffic link within an urban area; an avenue was originally grander, wider and often lined with trees or other flora. But the distinction has eroded over time, as when, for example, real estate developers indiscriminately call new roads “avenues” to make a more grandiose impression.
Curator, National Postal Museum
Did the Viking settlers of Greenland grow grapes there during the Medieval Warm Period (c. 950-1250)? Could gooseberries have grown there at the time, accounting for the references to grapes in Norse sagas?
No, on both counts. Those settlers—who are more correctly called “Norse” after they became established in Greenland and adopted Christianity—never grew grapes in Greenland. It was too cold, even during the Medieval Warm Period. However, Norse explorers likely found grapes in northern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Gooseberries were introduced from Europe to the Americas in post-Norse times.
Anthropologist and Co-author, Maine to Greenland: Exploring the Maritime Far Northeast, National Museum of Natural History
Do stars make sounds?
Stars do vibrate and generate acoustic waves, but at frequencies way too low for humans to hear. In addition, sounds are compression waves and need some medium to travel through, such as air, water or metal; they can’t travel through empty space. That’s why I chuckled at the opening scene of the first Star Wars movie, in which the giant spacecraft is accompanied by a rumble.
Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
How effective is an air horn as a defense against an animal attack?
Edward John Hinker
Some animal facilities have used a pressurized horn system, but we use bear spray and other measures when we work near large carnivores. Bear spray (stronger than mace) offers longer protection than a horn.
Animal Keeper, National Zoo
Why did Alexander Gardner move soldiers’ bodies for his Civil War photographs?
Los Angeles, California
Gardner was seeking to create dramatic tableaux of the aftermath of battle. The best known of his “manipulations” was of the so-called Rebel sharpshooter at Devil’s Den at Gettysburg, for which he moved an ordinary soldier’s corpse some distance to a nook in the rocks to give him the status of a sharpshooter. In effect, he created a narrative about an individual; it was his way of coping with the mass, anonymous casualties of modern warfare. Now, we justifiably deplore this as an affront to historical fact.
David C. Ward
Senior Historian, National Portrait Gallery
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