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History and Society
Astrophysicists once believed in a static Universe, containing only the Milky Way galaxy. Science definitively proved otherwise.
Successful constructive criticism is as much about mindset as methods.
Society incorrectly blamed a "population bomb” for problems that had other causes. A wrong diagnosis produces ineffective solutions.
The number of people with whom we interact is highest around 40, but then things change substantially after that.
Many of his criticisms ring true today.
Many of the furniture giant’s products are named after Swedish locations. Not everyone is happy about that.
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?
Hit shows are like societal mirrors, capable of reflecting the cultural zeitgeist whose likeness they try to record.
After decades of development, whether NASA's Webb succeeds or fails all comes down to five critical milestones that are only days away.
The AI remembers that you are 32 years old and like to eat sushi, except on Thursdays.
Do your kids a favor and give them the gift of philosophy this Christmas.
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.
With sea levels rising, the Dutch are pondering floating cities — while also exporting their engineering know-how to turn a tidy profit.
“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.
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.
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.
The most technically impressive feats of animation often strike us as eerie instead of impressive, and it’s all thanks to the uncanny valley.
The singer-songwriter distilled the essence of the holidays into a hit song, and for her efforts she was crowned the Queen of Christmas.
Our Solar System's outer reaches, and what's in them, was predicted long before the first Oort Cloud object was ever discovered.
Purely physical and chemical processes can deceive us into thinking that life is present, when it actually is not.
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.
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?
Released in 1972, "Ways of Seeing" has proven to be as worthy of study as the artistic traditions it investigates.
Until now, researchers believed davemaoite could never be found on Earth's surface.
Missing link? More like the weakest link.
Washington believed that particular Thanksgiving in 1789 was a crucial occasion.