Search
History and Society
The Roman Empire at one point emitted roughly 3,600 tons of lead dust per year, causing “widespread cognitive decline.”
7mins
From anger to awe: How one woman overcame “debilitating trauma” to conquer a near-impossible 53-hour swim at 64.
Scientists just viewed one of the tiniest, most isolated, lowest-mass galaxies ever found with JWST. Despite all odds, it's still growing.
New telescopes, radio dishes, and gravitational wave detectors are needed for next-generation science. Will the USA lead the way?
People who've never been partnered tend to be less extraverted, less conscientious, and more neurotic.
Sunita Sah hopes that by redefining defiance, we can build societies that allow people to live more authentic lives.
The discovery of ultra-bright, ultra-distant galaxies was JWST's first big surprise. They didn't "break the Universe," and now we know why.
“Technology has always been co-opted for war, but truly intelligent AI, let alone a superintelligence, is a different beast entirely.”
Most stars shine with properties, like brightness, that barely change at all with time. The ones that do vary help us unlock the Universe.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Caitlin Rivers wants to tell the story of epidemiology and the public health heroes who keep the world safe and healthy.
"You’ll be able to fly twice as fast as a Boeing or Airbus, and it’ll be like the cost of flying business today."
Hawking’s refusal to upgrade his communication system preserved a voice that became iconic, not just for its sound, but for the profound identity it conveyed.
A wave of innovation is coursing through the nuclear industry — but ingrained opposition is the biggest roadblock.
4mins
“In our current social and physical climate, there's a sense of fatalism, a fear that bringing someone new into the world might be a bad thing.”
It's simpler, more compact, and reusable from year-to-year in a way that no other calendar is. Here's both how it works and how to use it.
With undersea cables, AI education, and more, the tech giant is helping create Africa’s “digital decade.”
The Malling-Hansen writing ball, with its potential and limitations, redefined Nietzsche’s philosophical and creative expression.
5mins
“While society's been humming along and enjoying all these advances in agriculture and medicine, in the last 50 or 60 years, ecologists have learned a lot about how nature works. I've codified these into a set of rules called the 'Serengeti Rules.'”
An evidence-based policy movement is arming the fight with tools and programs that are more effective than ever before.
Did the Milky Way form by slowly accreting matter or by devouring its neighboring galaxies? At last, we're uncovering our own history.
Known as orphaned planets, rogue planets, or planets without parent stars, these "outliers" might be the most common type of planet overall.
The carbon market and offsetting system have created “carbon cowboys” and perpetuated forms of neo-colonialism and other inequities.
11mins
“We've engineered a volatile world where Starbucks is completely unchanging from year to year, but democracies are collapsing and rivers are drying up.”