History and Society

History and Society

a group of people sitting at tables under umbrellas.
It’s a lot easier to point out things that are gezellig (adjective) than it is to define gezelligheid (noun) itself.
an aerial view of a castle like area with mountains in the background.
Burj Al Babas may one day be full of wealthy vacationers, but for now it’s a ghost town in the center of Turkey.
A man sitting at a counter in a restaurant with friends.
The lack of friendship is particularly a problem for men. But there are easy ways to make friends.
a close up of a brain on a blue background.
8mins
A University of Oxford professor explains how conscious machines are possible.
a painting of a building with a red sky in the background.
Adolescents actively shape the transformation of religion and become the bearers of new religious patterns, worldviews, and values.
John Templeton Foundation
Silhouette of a person with outstretched hands pressed against a red, translucent surface.
6mins
This is not your average dream interpreter. Nightmares, as explained by a neuroscientist.
carl sagan in a laboratory
Science isn't synonymous with technology; it's about a way of thinking.
double slit experiments with electrons send one at a time
The double-slit experiment, hundreds of years after it was first performed, still holds the key mystery at the heart of quantum physics.
a woman sitting at a table with a chess board.
Chess could perhaps be the ultimate window through which we might see how our mental powers shift during our lives.
the night sky is filled with stars and trees.
For many years, some cosmologists embraced the idea of an eternal, steady state universe. But science triumphed over philosophical prejudice.
quantum superposition
With a massive, charged nucleus orbited by tiny electrons, atoms are such simple objects. Miraculously, they make up everything we know.
a picture of a blue planet with a black background.
Frozen adversity set the stage for an explosion of diversity.
a collage of photos of a man with a beard.
Unmasking a "convenient untruth" in U.S. politics.
In 1903, a Vermont doctor bet $50 that he could cross America by car. It took him 63 days, $8,000, and 600 gallons of gas.
a group of men riding on the backs of horses.
Mongol forces never fully conquered the continent, but they played a key role in its historical development.
Illustration of two boxers in vintage-style attire, with one boxer extending a punch toward the other against a yellow background.
4mins
“If intelligence is the ability to respond to any argument, wisdom lies in knowing which parts of an argument to respond to.” Harvard debate coach Bo Seo explains how to argue better.
a picture of a skeleton in the dirt.
It wasn't merely an act of brutality; it was a condemnation for the afterlife.
a spooky graveyard
Zombies aren't a modern-day obsession. Throughout history, fear of the undead led to bizarre burial rituals all over the world.
a metal tray topped with four pieces of food.
Fortune cookies emerged from one of America’s darkest moments.
a drawing of a person standing next to a pair of shoes.
The multi-leveled constructions of metaphysics are the collective workings of a fantastical virtuality. Did you get that?
a group of people standing inside of a maze.
More than 90 percent of people make a mistake on this test.
newspapers on a printing press
Just like with AI, people worried about job security and the spread of disinformation. Machines were destroyed and book merchants were chased out of town.
a close up of a cell phone near a keyboard.
The biggest lingering question about GPT-4 isn't if it's going to destroy jobs or take over the world. Instead, it is this: Do we trust AI programmers to tell society what is true?
sentient AI
When someone attempts to make you afraid of something that hasn't happened instead of a true, present danger, suspect this nefarious ploy.
Millikan Lemaitre and Einstein
Einstein called his idea "abominable," but the world of physics came around to embracing the views of Georges Lemaître.
a drawing of a man wearing a helmet with a map in the background.
When Mongol traders came knocking, Sultan Muhammad II shaved off their beards. Three years later, his whole empire was annihilated.
a painting of a man laying on a bed next to a lion.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy utilizes a non-ordinary state of consciousness to heal.