Science

Already prone to boiler explosions that regularly killed scores of passengers, steamboats were pushed to their limits in races that valued speed over safety.

Pennyroyal is a species of mint with purple flowers. It smells like spearmint. And it has been used as an abortifacient for over two thousand years.

More than 30 years ago, the "French paradox" got America bleary-eyed.

Efforts to pinpoint early cases have been complicated, and in some cases compromised, by distractions and diversions.

In “Spoiled,” the culinary historian Anne Mendelson takes aim at the American fallacy of fresh milk as a wonder food.

How Black women used exercise to achieve civic goals in the late nineteenth century.

Long before the hippies, a group of thinkers used substances like cocaine, hashish, and nitrous oxide to uncover the secrets of the mind.

His research ushered in the psychedelic renaissance. Now it's changing how he's facing death.

How did a field meant to reclaim genetics from Nazi abuses wind up a haven for race science?

The early republic and the seventh planet.

New research adds scientific detail to Indigenous narratives that tell a different story.

The IBM 7094 anticipated the future of music—and also sounded like the Auto-Tuned pop stars of today.

The death of mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe is its own mystery. But new research suggests election fraud may have contributed to his demise in Baltimore.

Rereading Priscilla Wald’s "Contagious" and Nancy Tomes’ "Gospel of Germs" amidst a 21st-century pandemic.

These scientists spent weeks underwater doing research—and convincing NASA women could also go into space.

A new book "examines legal cases of women accused of infanticide and concealment of stillbirth."

Reflecting on the trailblazing chemist’s fight for dignity and the myths we tell about our scientific heroes.

Our own world is built from copper, and so too will future worlds be.

In "The Car," Bryan Appleyard sets out to celebrate the freedom these vehicles granted. But what if they were a dangerous technology from the start?

BMI is a simple calculation, but how it is translated into a diagnosis is complex and flawed.

Why a powerful House Republican wants to ban a common insurance practice.

A new interactive digital project recovers biographies of women in science, and recreates the social networks that were essential to sustaining their work.

Loss of control over knowledge of the female body cemented women’s status as second-class citizens.

How one doctor’s letter and a string of dodgy studies spurred a public health panic.

The U.S. Army's contributions to meteorology.

Fertilizers filled with the nutrient boosted our ability to feed the planet. Today, they’re creating vast and growing dead zones in our lakes and seas.

Decades before paleontology’s formal establishment, Black and Native Americans discovered—and correctly identified—millennia-old fossils.

Throughout its history, the technology sector has been dependent on the federal budget.

What is an industry-made disaster, and what is caused by natural factors like weather?

Some see the reaction to Sen. Fetterman’s announcement as a sign of progress, but that’s less true than you might think.