Download the PDF Lawrence Steele has a remarkable talent. Is that enough?
by Michael Specter
It is exactly 2 p.m. on a grim Tuesday at the end of January, and Lawrence Steele is standing in the middle of a busy street in central London, staring furtively at the stoop of a three-story brick town house. Read more »
The next big medical breakthroughs may result from one scientist's battle to map the Viking gene pool.
by Michael Specter
If not for a single genetic peculiarity, passed invisibly through the generations, it is unlikely that we would know a thing about a sixteenth-century Icelandic cleric named Einar. Read more »
In its planned invasion of Italy, Starbucks is armed with Frappuccinos and Americanos–but will that win over a nation of espresso drinkers?
by Michael Specter
A couple of years ago, after a long dinner in a medieval Tuscan village, I asked my father–who was visiting Italy for the first time–if he wanted a cup of coffee. His eyes went blank. "Not the thimbleful," he said, with dread, as if the waiter were about to deliver a thumbscrew instead of an espresso. Read more »
After years of controversy and bungling, the members of the secretive Swedish Academy are more divided than ever.
by Michael Specter
One Thursday in October, a man named Sture Allen will carry out what he calls "my little ritual." Read more »
Michael Specter has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998.
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