History & Society

History & Society

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

An illustration of an undergraduate man sitting at a desk.
College students once stood out from the pack on IQ tests. Today, they're about average.
A map of a cluster of stars illustrating star birth.
Here in our Solar System, we only have one star: a singlet. For many systems, including the highest-mass ones, that's anything but the norm.
A group of people holding signs that say we demand voting rights now.
There is a cross-country correlation between democracy and health. Is there good evidence to suggest it is causal?
An image of a spiral galaxy with stars in the background, showcasing the mesmerizing beauty of cosmic formations.
The pattern 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc., is the Fibonacci sequence. It shows up all over nature. But what's the full explanation behind it?
A map of europe with many orange dots.
London’s busiest airport seems to be rebounding well from the pandemic — but Istanbul has better prospects in the long run.
The honest power of placebos.
Placebo treatments don't always need to be given deceptively to have positive effects.
An image of a planet with a moon, highlighting one of the first living worlds discovered.
Life became a possibility in the Universe as soon as the raw ingredients were present. But living, inhabited worlds required a bit more.
A man in a blue shirt is holding his neck in front of a laptop, possibly experiencing inflammation.
Western societies seem to be getting inflammation achingly wrong.
A model of the Colossus depicting the grandeur of ancient Rome.
Archaeologist Bernard Frischer spent decades uploading the ruins of the Eternal City to the cloud. Here’s what it looks like.
A black and white photo of albert einstein laughing.
The most celebrated genius in human history didn't just revolutionize physics, but taught many valuable lessons about living a better life.
An artist's rendering of two **changed** planets in space.
Our cosmic home, planet Earth, has been through a lot over the past 4.5 billion years. Here are some of its most spectacular changes
Aphantasia limits the ability to visualize a statue of a man in the mind's eye.
I also can’t conjure sounds, smells, or any other kind of sensory stimulation inside my head. This is called “aphantasia.”
supernova remnant star formation spitzer
One newly discovered, ancient star has a composition unlike any other. Explaining its existence is already blowing astronomers' minds.
A person sits in an armchair at a table engaged in digital reading. The person's face is scribbled over with green lines.
From Hogwarts to hashtags, kids' reading habits have changed drastically in recent decades — but data suggests cause for hope.
A woman holding a baby's hand, symbolizing the bond between families.
Smaller family networks, more great-grandparents, and fewer cousins.
The Medea affect is brilliantly captured in this painting of a powerful woman brandishing a sword.
Parents will sometimes use children as weapons in their relationship battles — and the fallout can be devastating.
The cover of the book envisions a sustainable future.
Environmental progress is happening quickly but we must keep pushing for change.
An image of a colorful object resembling a dark primordial galaxy in the sky.
Finding it at all was a happy accident. Examining it further may help unlock the secrets hiding within the earliest galaxies of all.