History and Society

History and Society

a yellow drawing of a man's face with a wave pattern.
A concept known as "wave-particle duality" famously applies to light. But it also applies to all matter — including you.
A vitamin that makes your body repellent to mosquitos sounds too good to be true, because it is.
A 3D illustration of a typhoon as seen from orbit.
Retired astronaut Ron Garan believes that before we can begin solving our problems, we must understand our interrelatedness through the "orbital perspective."
nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion has long been seen as the future of energy. As the NIF now passes the breakeven point, how close are we to our ultimate goal?
The most important events in history have nothing to do with politics or wars.
Some of the weirdest characters in Greek mythology were Athenian kings.
For decades, cinemas have earned more from concessions than ticket sales. But can their current business model survive in the streaming age?
Million Stories
playpump
Wizbang innovations capture the public’s imagination, but thoughtful, incremental development is often more valuable to those in need.
We don’t know when or how music was originally invented, but we can now track its evolution across space and time thanks to the Global Jukebox.
cosmic inflation
We thought the Big Bang started it all. Then we realized that something else came before, and it erased everything that existed prior.
St Nick had a history of teleporting long before needing to reach all the world's children in one night.
A group of prominent scientists shares how research has changed them.
Albert Einstein played a mean violin.
Christianity england
For the first time in nearly 1500 years, fewer than half the people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian.
superabundance
Inequality should be measured in terms of the time it takes for us to earn the money to buy the things we need. And everyone is getting wealthier.
iconoclast
Climate activists' brand of iconoclasm is far removed from the Beeldenstorm that swept medieval Europe.
5mins
The real risks of psychedelics, explained by a Johns Hopkins expert.
The spikes in their mouths would have helped them catch squid or fish.
A Carrington-magnitude event would kill millions, and cause trillions of dollars in damage. Sadly, it isn't even the worst-case scenario.
Between the instability of the real estate market and cryptocurrency fluctuations, everyone has been talking about bubbles. But what are they, really?
Million Stories
Compared to Earth, Mars is small, cold, dry, and lifeless. But 3.4 billion years ago, a killer asteroid caused a Martian megatsunami.
Rembrandt Raising of the Cross sketch
A conservator from the Rijksmuseum explains how they went about investigating whether the painting is a genuine Rembrandt.