History and Society

History and Society

every square degree
The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, going back to the hot Big Bang. But was that truly the beginning, and is that truly its age?
artemis
It is humanity's biggest step yet into the Solar System.
The history of money is a history of convenience, and spending has never been easier than it is today.
Million Stories
Is science for everyone, or just the morally upright?
Population growth is driven by three changes: Fertility, mortality, and migration.
earth
We cannot afford to dream about living on other worlds while we continue to destroy ours.
You don't have to be an emperor to apply these rules to daily living.
Abstract image of hands reaching through a picture frame.
By challenging your preconceptions, art offers a framework by which you can solve problems.
Its apples taste bad, but institutions all over the world want a descendant or clone of the tree, anyway.
You want your baby's name to be unique, but so does everyone else.
We want to fight invasive species. But to wage a war, you have to know who your enemy is.
What began as public outcry against Iran’s so-called morality police has snowballed into a mass movement targeting the very essence of the Islamic republic.
Atlantic Ocean liner
For centuries, the only way to travel between the Old and New World was through ships like the RMS Lusitania. Experiences varied wildly depending on your income.
triple alignment
True north, magnetic north, and grid north have aligned. There's also a connection to James Bond.
Children who have a brain hemisphere removed — a procedure known as hemispherectomy — behave completely normally.
ideal night sy conditions
We're used to scientists telling us about the math and physics behind astronomical events. But what does studying space make us feel?
When your passion becomes your day job, sometimes the day job becomes a chore.
Paradoxically, some do it for erotic reasons.
Late Night Show with David Letterman
Late-night shows, developed during the "golden age" of TV, are no longer as relevant in the age of streaming services and Donald Trump.
primordial slime
Bathybius haeckelii was briefly thought to be the link between inorganic matter and organic life.
Many have argued that morals are relative, but Russia's war crimes reveal the hollowness of that belief. Morality is universal and objective.
flight shame
Environmental activists want us to feel "flight shame" if we can take a train, instead. But this isn't entirely realistic, even in Europe.
quantum entanglement
Maybe our understanding of quantum entanglement is incomplete, or maybe there is something fundamentally unique about consciousness.
Many Americans aren't rejecting spirituality, just practicing it differently.