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History & Society
Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.
At the turn of the millennium, a physicist fooled the global scientific community with the greatest discovery that never existed.
7mins
Plato and Carl Sagan were wrong about the human brain, says a top neuroscientist.
The Foo Fighters are at the dead center of the map, so all the other bands are happier, sadder, angrier, or hornier.
"In witness whereof, the parties hereunto have set their hands to these presents as a deed on the day month and year hereinbefore mentioned."
Mary Toft staged an elaborate hoax, but the pain was real.
You'll be able to sleep through a war.
Who’s afraid of utopia? AI doubters have cold feet. History can warm them.
We don't know what causes Miyake events, but these great surges of energy can help us understand the past — while posing a threat to our future.
If you think you know what sex, gender, and "the right thing to do" for trans youth and adults are, be sure it agrees with actual science.
We will have a better shot at improving our lives once we come to understand, know, and love the people we will one day become.
It's a useful fiction — but it's still fiction.
Before Rome was an empire, it was a republic. And before it was a republic, it was a kingdom ruled by seven mythical kings — some better than others.
13mins
Sex, gender, and the debate over identity explained by Berkeley professor Judith Butler.
Reject your Mental Map Oversimplifications.
When Einstein gave General Relativity to the world, he included an extraneous cosmological constant. How did his 'biggest blunder' occur?
The meaning of the cryptic text has eluded scholars for centuries. Their latest efforts include computational analyses seeking new insights into the medieval enigma.
Gamma-ray bursts are so powerful they could vaporize the Earth from 200 light-years away. Recreating them in the lab is not easy.
Neuroscientists and artists alike are making the case that we could transform the world through psychedelics.
Numerous videos online show that squid undergo a dramatic color-changing effect after being stunned or killed.
Dive into a realm where time, space, and even reality itself are put into question.