History
274 Years Ago Today, Benjamin Franklin Flew a Kite
But a Frenchman beat him to the electric punch by a month
Lessons in Chemistry, 19th-Century Style
She wrote the bestseller that made young people fall in love with science
Did a Roman Legionnaire Wear Eyeliner?
An ancient makeup bottle turns up far from its Egyptian home
The Most Precarious Day in the Universe
On the same day the world descended into war, physicists saw reality itself unraveling
Is This Why Science Advances One Funeral at a Time?
As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work
Rome Was Built Today
Celebrating the scientific and technical contributions of Rome on the mythical birthday of the eternal city
The Birth of Genius
Leonardo da Vinci, polymath and victim of the vagaries of science funding, was born on this day
The Bra-and-Girdle Maker That Fashioned the Impossible for NASA
Crafting a spacesuit demanded perfection from seamstresses to gluers to engineers — every stitch could mean life or death
The Creator of the SAT Was an Infamous Eugenicist
The racist origin story of the most common college entrance exam
