History & Society

History & Society

Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.

Rising Star cave
Fittingly, the skull was found in the Rising Star cave of South Africa, itself located at a site known to UNESCO as the Cradle of Mankind.
inventions
From textiles and transportation to chemicals and microchips, a group of researchers proposes a new way to measure the impact of innovation.
Nietzsche painting
The German thinker wrote both treatises and songs. He approached each form of expression with the same level of interest.
free will
Many have argued that free will is an illusion, but science does not support that.
California condor does not need male to reproduce
Virgin birth – which involves the development of an unfertilised egg – has preoccupied humans for aeons. And although it can’t happen in mammals, it does seem to be possible in […]
how many planets
Based on the atoms that they're made out of, the innermost planet should always be the densest. Here's why Earth beats Mercury, hands down.
Although many dinosaurs never left the ground, they still possessed the basic structural framework for flight.
philosophy
Even some philosophers don’t think highly of philosophy, but we need it now more than ever.
The history of resuscitation
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
hardened wood
Are hardened wood knives and nails coming to a store near you?
supervolcano
Surface deformation or other signs of an impending explosion may not occur. Instead, supervolcanic eruptions can be much more insidious.
Three people standing on the inside of a clock illustrating an article on daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time was first implemented during the first world war to take advantage of longer daylight hours and save energy. While this made a difference when we heavily relied on coal […]
Squid Game is a critique of meritocracy
Winner takes all, losers die, and participants have no choice but to play.
Dostoevsky
According to literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, Dostoevsky's talents were on par with those of William Shakespeare.
propaganda
3mins
Propaganda urges you to mobilize towards something while concealing from you things that you reasonably should think and consider.
dune
Tighten your ‘thopter seatbelts and get those worm-hooks ready: we're going to unpack the hype surrounding Dune, both the book and the movie.
Mayan
Looking with lasers, researchers discovered that many Olmec and Mayan ruins seem to have been constructed from the same blueprint.
Why are the rest masses of fundamental particles related like this? When it comes to the nature of matter in the Universe, the Standard Model describes the known elementary particles perfectly […]
The laws of physics aren’t changing. The Earth is. When it comes to any physical science, we know that the fundamental rules governing how the Universe works remain constant with time. […]
Delaying or refusing vaccines for non-medical reasons is literally a killer choice. When it comes to issues at the intersection of science and society, there are all sorts of things that […]