As the weather is starting to get nicer, everyone wants to be outside and enjoy the fresh air! Here are some headlines you might have missed while taking a lovely stroll through the city. 

Happening in the World: Both the art world and thieves alike have been fooled by imitations of famous paintings, whether it be tricking a museum into buying a fake or tricking thieves into stealing an imitation rather than the real thing. However, conservators from the English Heritage charity were pleasantly surprised when they found out the piece “Madonna della Melagrana (Madonna of the Pomegranate)” by Botticelli was the real deal. This came as a surprise as the original is currently on display in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, leading the conservators to believe that the once thought imitation piece is a similar piece from Botticelli’s studio. Art conservators originally suspected the painting was an imitation because of variations of certain details as well as the yellow varnish that covered the painting. However, through pigment analysis, x-rays, and infrared studies, English Heritage believes that the painting was truly made in Botticelli’s workshop (CNN).

Happening in the US: In December, FarOut was said to be the most distant object in our solar system at 120 AU from the Sun (AU = distance from the Sun to the Earth = 93 million miles). This was the first object to be found to be more than 100 times farther from the Sun than the Earth. In comparison, Pluto is 34 AU away from the Sun. However, in late February, Scott Shepard, a staff scientist in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institute for Science discovered FarFarOut. This object was discovered to be around 140 AU from the Sun, making it the most distant object in our solar system, surpassing FarOut. Based on the distance and brightness of the object, Shepard and his team suspect that FarFarOut is approximately 400 kilometers in diameter and might be a dwarf planet. However, this object wasn’t exactly what the team was looking for, as their main focus was to detect “Planet Nine,” a predicted gas giant around the Kuiper Belt (CNN).

Happening in NYC: New York Attorney General, Letitia James, has filed a lawsuit against the Sackler Family alleging that they illegally profited from the opioid epidemic. Eight members of the family have been implicated in charges which include personally contributing to the opioid epidemic. The family vehemently denies all charges. However, the 251-page suit claims to provide new details on how the Sacklers, who served on the Board of Purdue Pharma, pushed for the sale and consumption of Oxycontin, a highly addictive painkiller, to increase their wealth which is estimated at $13 billion. Both Oklahoma and Massachusetts have also taken aim at the Sacklers, resulting in a “donation” last week of $75 million to help fund an opioid treatment center in Oklahoma, with many under the assumption that this “donation” was due to lengthy legal negotiations (NPR)

Happening on Campus: As part of the Women Poets of Barnard series, Anne Carson, a Classics Professor, poet, essayist, and translator will be coming to campus on April 10th. The event is hosted by the Barnard English department and will be held on the 3rd floor of Barnard Hall in the Sulzberger Parlor and starts at 7 pm (Barnard English Department).

Documentary of the Week: Not a documentary (again) but Anne with an E, season 2, episode 7 “Memory has as Many Moods as The Temper.” I recommend you watch the entire series first so you can understand it, but this episode was so beautiful and amazing and made me cry.

pomegranate lady via Wikimedia Commons