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History & Society
Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.
With a finite 13.8 billion years having passed since the Big Bang, there's an edge to what we can see: the cosmic horizon. What's it like?
Steam cars hit the U.S. market in the 1890s but were largely extinct by the 1930s. Will technology bring them back?
We bring multifaceted selves to our interactions, and in these interactions co-create each other again and again.
The utilitarian “greatest happiness principle” has remained popular for two centuries — is it time for a rethink?
8mins
What makes some scientists culturally significant, while others remain in obscurity? Well, there’s a science to it.
Mercury, Venus, and Mars are all uni-plate planets, and may always have been. Here's what's known about why Earth, uniquely, has plate tectonics.
Parking lots are about one-fifth of all land in U.S. city centers, making them "easy to get to, but not worth arriving at."
To what extent will our psychological vulnerabilities shape our interactions with emerging technologies?
Brian C. Muraresku, New York Times best-selling author of "The Immortality Key," unpacks ancient evidence for the widespread ritual use of psychoactive plants.
Researchers discovered something modern humans had never before seen—a flashy Neanderthal horn collection.
Lots of people have seen lots of bizarre events and phenomena that defy our conventional experience. But is there a scientific explanation?
Temperatures in the Sun's core exceed 10 million degrees Celsius. But how on Earth did we actually come to know that?
1hr 19mins
Steven Pinker explains how to cultivate greater rationality in today's complex world.