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Alexander Vilenkin

Gary Lincoff, author of The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, helps my fellow mushrooms hunters identify their finds in the woods of Piermont, NY.

Some people will go to incredible lengths to find an awesome wild mushroom

Food

My Russian mother made me go mushroom picking with her when I was a kid. Now I finally get it. Sort of.

A film still of physicist Alexander Vilenkin from the set of "Dau". He was flown to Kharkov for a week to play the role of a scientist in the movie.

This movie about a Soviet scientist may be the grandest experiment in film history, if it ever gets finished

Arts
Despite the cartoons that her dad draws to illustrate his work — in this case, the theory of cosmic strings — Alina Simone still can't figure it out.

Even when your dad’s a physicist, it’s hard to wrap your head around the Big Bang discovery

Environment
Despite the cartoons that her dad draws to illustrate his work — in this case, the theory of cosmic strings — Alina Simone still can't figure it out.

Even when your dad’s a physicist, it’s hard to wrap your head around the Big Bang discovery

Environment
Alina Simone's father, Alexander Vilenkin, at the Kharkov Zoo in 2011. Vilenkin worked there as a night watchman after he was blacklisted by the KGB in Soviet Ukraine.

This Soviet-born émigré remembers working at the Kharkov zoo

Conflict & Justice
Alina Simone's father, Alexander Vilenkin, at the Kharkov Zoo in 2011. Vilenkin worked there as a night watchman after he was blacklisted by the KGB in Soviet Ukraine.

This Soviet-born émigré remembers working at the Kharkov zoo

Conflict & Justice

Kharkov’s Zoo in eastern Ukraine has been in the news over a shortage of funding and food. But when Kharkov-born writer Alina Simone saw the news, it hit even closer to home. Her dad worked as a night watchman at the zoo.