Culture
Posted by Kitty Ferguson on July 03, 2013
On July 4, 1776, representatives of thirteen colonies on the eastern shores of North America signed a Declaration of Independence from England. Winning independence was still a bloody war…
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Numbers
Posted by Lee Billings on July 02, 2013
“None knows whence creation arose; And whether he has or has not made it; He who surveys it from the lofty skies. Only he knows—or perhaps not.”This is an edited snippet from…
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Matter
Posted by Brandon Keim on July 01, 2013
If you want to know the weather tomorrow, meteorologists can tell you. If you’d like to know what it’ll be like in 50 years, climatologists can tell you that reasonably accurately,…
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Biology
Posted by Eli Chen on June 28, 2013
There’s no doubt that the climate in many parts of the planet is changing quickly. The planet is getting hotter, sea levels are rising, storms are intensifying, many lands are drying…
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Matter
Posted by Jennifer Ouellette on June 27, 2013
We tend to focus on major decisions as having momentous effects, but what if something as simple as a missed train could change the course of your life? And what if you follow two different…
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Ideas
Posted by Kyle Hill on June 26, 2013
Why is a statement like “vaccines cause autism” persuasive or not? Each side of the issue will no doubt claim some support, but if we know anything about psychology, it’s that facts…
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Culture
Posted by Amos Zeeberg on June 25, 2013
This afternoon, President Obama gave a major speech at Georgetown University laying out his administration’s climate and energy policy. The most notable bit was probably that he’s directing…
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Biology
Posted by Brandon Keim on June 24, 2013
Take a look at a butterfly’s wing, and you can learn a lesson about life. Not that it’s beautiful, or fragile, or too easily appreciated only when it’s fading—though all that is…
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Culture
Posted by David Dobbs on June 21, 2013
When Italian authorities confirmed Wednesday that James Gandolfini had just died in Rome of an apparent heart attack, many of the US reports fronted the fact that Gandolfini’s body would…
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Biology
Posted by Amos Zeeberg on June 20, 2013
When looking at the “Nutrition Facts” label on a package of food, the familiar Helvetica text laid out according to the FDA’s exacting specifications, you could easily…
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