History and Society

History and Society

A map of "I love you" in various European languages
How to say “I love you” in Basque, the "most loving" cities around the world, and where most of America’s singles live — and so much more!
Books stacked in a library
Instead of walking a mile in someone’s shoes, try reading a chapter in their book.
Sex, it turns out, isn’t as easy or simple as popular culture might lead us to believe.
Surveillance camera
Whether in Russia or China, the secret police are defined by their unquestioning loyalty — as well as by their poor career prospects.
Almost 18,000 projects, brought together on one clickable map.
According to Peter Ward's "Medea hypothesis," photosynthesizing organisms regularly doom most life on Earth by over-consuming carbon dioxide.
A wide-scale examination of early Neolithic human skeletons reveals the violent history of a supposedly peaceful period.
timeline of the universe history
From the earliest stages of the hot Big Bang (and even before) to our dark energy-dominated present, how and when did the Universe grow up?
Video games matter. Their continued technological and artistic development is reshaping the way we satisfy our ancient need to tell stories.
Science will lead us to a universal morality and a cosmic religion.
Fear of being scammed can lead us to make decisions that go against our values and goals — both as individuals and as a society.
Buddha statue with flowers
For Buddhists, the “Four Noble Truths” offer a path to lasting happiness.
7mins
How to maximize wins and minimize losses, explained by four experts on game theory.
Here are the signs that you inherited “money anxiety” from your parents.
Million Stories
Simple physics makes hauling vast ice chunks thousands of miles fiendishly difficult — but not impossible.
Earth exoplanet direct imaging degraded
NASA has finally chosen which flagship mission, like Hubble and JWST, will launch in ~2040. Detecting alien life is now a reachable goal.
Hundreds of these cannabis-related chemicals now exist, both natural and synthetic, inspiring researchers in search of medical breakthroughs.
Alibaba has played a key role in China’s meteoric economic rise.
Imagine going on a tour through the human circulatory system as a tiny cell. That is just one example of education in the metaverse.
abandoned mine
Slimy biofilms made up of bacterial and eukaryotic life forms have taken over an abandoned, flooded uranium mine in Germany.
Could the prevalence of flood myths around the world tell us something about early human migration or even the way our brains work?
astronaut looking at Earth-like planet
We are traveling in a realm that once exclusively belonged to the gods. Space travel will force humanity to rethink everything.
Some effective altruists “earn to give” — they make as much money as they can and then donate most of it to charities.
“We suffer more often in the imagination than in reality.”
Socrates addresses the Athenian assembly
Most philosophers merely contemplate the world, but what about the ones who actually tried to change it?
6mins
Chloé Valdary shares the ancient Stoic principle that can defeat modern despair.