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The Carouser and the Great Astronomer

It’s a fine line between oblivion and immortality.

May 13, 2020

What if Another Crisis Strikes During This Pandemic?

A warning from history about simultaneous disasters.

March 25, 2020

We Are All Ancient Mapmakers

Why we still see the world like the mathematician and poet who first mapped it.

January 29, 2020

If Only 19th-Century America Had Listened to a Woman Scientist

Where might the US be if it heeded her discovery of global warming’s source?

November 27, 2019

How American Tycoons Created the Dinosaur

The story of dinosaurs is also the story of capitalism.

September 4, 2019

Geology Makes You Time-Literate

A scientist tells us how her field instills timefulness.

September 12, 2018

My Mom, the Missile Computress

What it was like being among the first women in the US missile program.

August 28, 2018

Another Side of Feynman

Nine letters by Freeman Dyson portray his relationship with the Nobel Laureate.

April 23, 2018

The Last Love of Jonas Salk

The unusual union of a renowned artist and the discoverer of the Polio vaccine.

February 5, 2018

The Radical Humanism of the Soviet Planetarium

This planetarium was hailed as a successor to Russian theater and the Orthodox Church.

January 9, 2018

The Stick Is an Unsung Hero of Human Evolution

Stone’s silent sister in the archaeological record.

January 5, 2018

You’re Descended from Royalty and So Is Everybody Else

Anybody you can name from ancient history is in your family tree.

January 2, 2018