History and Society

History and Society

Many of the furniture giant’s products are named after Swedish locations. Not everyone is happy about that.
heroism
For such a near-universal concept, the definition of "heroism" is difficult to pin down.
What was this mammoth tusk doing on the ocean floor 150 miles from land?
American family
Hit shows are like societal mirrors, capable of reflecting the cultural zeitgeist whose likeness they try to record. 
James Webb Space Telescope
After decades of development, whether NASA's Webb succeeds or fails all comes down to five critical milestones that are only days away.
sex robot
The AI remembers that you are 32 years old and like to eat sushi, except on Thursdays.
nice list
Do your kids a favor and give them the gift of philosophy this Christmas.
scientism
Science is a method of inquiry about nature, while scientism is philosophy. And scientism is no longer up to the challenge of meeting the most pressing issues of our day.
holland sea level
With sea levels rising, the Dutch are pondering floating cities — while also exporting their engineering know-how to turn a tidy profit.
science politics
“To be ignorant of causes is to be frustrated in action.” So wrote Francis Bacon, counsel to Queen Elizabeth I of England and key architect of the scientific method. In […]
Pando, which is Latin for "I spread," is a single organism spanning some 106 acres.
A businessman quits his job as part of the Great Resignation and smiles contently.
Millions of Americans are quitting their jobs, but even if you can’t join the Great Resignation, you can still pursue a do-over moment.
Laetoli
Bears, chimps, or humans? A track of five poorly preserved footsteps at Laetoli has puzzled paleontologists for decades. Now, a research paper from Nature claims to have solved the mystery.
uncanny robot
The most technically impressive feats of animation often strike us as eerie instead of impressive, and it’s all thanks to the uncanny valley.
all i want for christmas
The singer-songwriter distilled the essence of the holidays into a hit song, and for her efforts she was crowned the Queen of Christmas.
Oort Cloud
Our Solar System's outer reaches, and what's in them, was predicted long before the first Oort Cloud object was ever discovered.
biosignatures
Purely physical and chemical processes can deceive us into thinking that life is present, when it actually is not.
neanderthal dna
Today, every Homo species is extinct besides humans. But one of our close evolutionary relatives still lives on in our DNA.
When we try to recreate simpler versions of natural ecosystems, we invariably make mistakes, argues author and biologist Rob Dunn.
James Bond in Casino Royale
What value does wit hold in genres defined by brute strength?
Most “irrecoverable carbon” is concentrated in these tiny bits of the Earth’s land mass. Can we keep it there?
Nacht Wacht at Rijksmuseum
Released in 1972, "Ways of Seeing" has proven to be as worthy of study as the artistic traditions it investigates.
davemaoite
Until now, researchers believed davemaoite could never be found on Earth's surface.
Washington believed that particular Thanksgiving in 1789 was a crucial occasion.
universal basic income
Universal basic income can secure basic independence for citizens, something which modern states have failed to do, argues author Louise Haagh.
This map of Hutterite colonies in North America says something about religion and evolution — and more precisely, speciation.
Woke racism
The modern antiracist movement is harming the very people it claims to help, according to the linguist John McWhorter.
axions
The majority of the matter in our Universe isn't made of any of the particles in the Standard Model. Could the axion save the day?