History
110 articles-
The Perpetual Quest for a Truth Machine
Why human attempts to mechanize logic keep breaking down. -
The Force Was with Them
My generation of filmmakers shook up cinema forever. Where are history’s periodic surges of creativity taking us? -
Magic Died When Art and Science Split
Renée Bergland’s 3 greatest revelations while writing Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science. -
The Smartphone of the Middle Ages
An accident of lighting uncovers Jewish, European, and Islamic origins. -
Is Christianity Based on Psychedelic Trips?
A radical theory that pagan cults gave rise to early Christianity. -
The Age of Rebellion
The surprising relationship between age and success in rebellions. -
The Feminist Botanist
A 19th-century tale of hermaphrodite flowers, Charles Darwin, and women’s right to vote. -
The Prizefighters
If you want to know what it takes to succeed in science, head to the Nobel Prize ceremony. -
What a Bronze Age Skeleton Reveals About Cavities
Here’s a hint: He didn’t eat processed foods and sugar. -
Archaeology at the Bottom of the Sea
David Gibbins on his 3 greatest revelations while writing A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks.
-
The Women Who Found Liberation in Seaweed
How a shared love of algae got a community of women hooked on marine science.
-
History’s Five Best Body Part Stories
Charles I’s neck bone, Queen Victoria’s armpit, and other fabulously gruesome medical tales.
-
How Tourists Are Rescuing the Ancient City of Palmyra
Photographs taken from before terrorists destroyed the site are helping researchers digitally resurrect it.
-
What Is a Beautiful Experiment?
Finding beauty in science is timeless. But we shouldn’t let it blind us.
-
Finding the Color of an Empire
What a particular shade of black can teach us about an ancient civilization. -
The 19th-Century Trippers Who Probed the Mind
In the age of self-experiment, scientists took mind-altering drugs to test the limits of subjectivity. -
The Ancient Architecture that Defies Earthquakes
Stone buildings in northern India reveal secrets of old structures that could save lives. -
The Strange Life of Glass
This essential substance has a history—and future—that’s far from clear. -
The Explosive Chemist Who Invented Smokeless Gunpowder
James Dewar, the creator of cordite, likely helped win World War I. But why never a Nobel?