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  An overgrown alleyway blooms into an oasis for walkers and cyclists, city parks shed creeping invasive species and solar lighting illuminates neighborhood pathways. These are among the 11 projects set to receive a portion of $125,000 from Pepco and the University of Maryland’s Sustainable Maryland program as part of the Sustainable Communities Grant Program, a new partnership between the D.C.-area utility and UMD’s statewide “greening program” to advance local sustainability projects.

Though astrology—or the study of the positions and motions of celestial bodies—has at times been cast off as a pseudo-science by scholars, research conducted by a University of Maryland historian seeks to establish the key role that astrologers played in constructing historical knowledge in the early Islamic world from the seventh to 10th centuries. 

Nestled in the mountains of western South Dakota is the little town of Lead, which bills itself as “quaint” and “rough around the edges.” Visitors driving past the hair salon or dog park may never guess that an unusual—even otherworldly—experiment is happening a mile below the surface.