Science

In the 1970s, a crop of books purporting to provide a scientific basis for gender inequality met sharp criticism from figures like Gould.

The third president knew that the whims of nature shaped Americans’ daily lives as farmers and enslavers.

Jimmy Carter, skeptical of NASA's shuttle, saved it with funding despite delays and opposition. His Voyager message carries hope deep into space.

In 1973, the Christmas Bird Count formed the basis for a press freedom case that centered on the impacts of DDT.

The Year 2000 computer problem continues to nag at us 25 years later.

How gang-nail plates led to bigger homes.

Between 40% and 50% of children didn’t live past 5 in the US during the 19th century. Authors documented the common but no less gutting grief of losing a child.

Susie Orbach’s 1978 book is a fascinating snapshot of diet and physical culture in a very different era.

The 1900 Galveston hurricane changed the way we deal with severe weather. But as Hurricane Helene showed, there are still lessons to be learned.

How politicians used the story of one young patient to neglect the AIDS crisis.

The “Indian peach” survived a genocide—but can it withstand climate change?

The 20th-century movement to fix slouching questions the moral and political dimensions of addressing bad backs over wider public health concerns.

How geology shaped American culture.

On the rise of the narcotic farm model, a radical reimagining of the nation’s approach to addiction.

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in US history. However, incomplete records have made it difficult to estimate the exact death toll.

How fifty years of barcode magic came to be.

Cicely Saunders realized that preparing for a good death is the first step in providing one.

Hervey Cleckley wanted to treat the most overlooked psychiatric patients. Instead his work was used to demonize them.

The abusive experiments on mentally disabled children at Willowbrook State School were only one part of a much larger unethical research program.

“Spectropia” demystified the techniques used by mediums who claimed they could speak to the dead, revealing the “absurd follies of Spiritualism.”

Apple experts divide time into “before Honeycrisp” and “after Honeycrisp,” and apples have never tasted so good.

Today’s contentious immigration debate is the construct of one man’s effort to halt overpopulation.

The Civil War's vast death toll joined Earth's deep time story, magnifying its meaning as part of God's creative acts across eons.

Journalists helped to pioneer what would eventually result in our mobile world.

Forest fires of 1910 sparked a media-driven fire exclusion policy, which has arguably worsened today's "fire problem."

In which John B. Calhoun begins to study the lifestyles of rodents, and the public listens.

Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?

Longevity enthusiasts are microdosing a 19th-century cure-all. Are they onto something?

“Postpartum depression” encompasses various debilitating changes in mood that can occur after giving birth. How did that language come to be?

It radically shifted the way the world looked at the environment, but created a wave of misinformation we’re still dealing with today.