Hindu devotees celebrate during Holi with colored powders at the Banke Bihari temple on March 26, 2013 in Vrindavan, India.

Gender and Caste at Holi

The Hindu festival of Holi celebrates love, colors, and the arrival of spring. How it's celebrated can vary significantly throughout India.
Heck cows

Cows Gone Wild: The Cattle of Heck

Returning large, wild herbivores to Europe could help maintain soil health and discourage invasive species, but these cows have some political baggage...
Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna’s Anarchic Psychedelic Religion

Terence McKenna was an evangelist for the use of psilocybin and other mind-altering drugs, as a way to transcend and escape “untrammeled rationalism.”
Major levels of linguistic structure

Filler Words and Floor Holders: The Sounds Our Thoughts Make

So, well, okay, um, like, you know, right?
A farmer in Louisiana, 1972

The USDA Versus Black Farmers

Current attempts to correct historical discrimination by local and regional offices of the USDA have been met with charges of "reverse discrimination."
A forest in Maine

Forests as Fuel: Is Bioenergy Carbon Neutral?

Can using forest harvests for biofuel be carbon neutral? A case study of the Northern Forest appears to say "no."
Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Keckley’s Memoir Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four in the White House

Keckley’s decision to write about her employers from the viewpoint of a household laborer—she was seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln—enraged audiences.
Louisa Jacobson in The Gilded Age

Philanthropy and the Gilded Age

As the HBO series The Gilded Age suggests, charity allowed wealthy women to play a visible role in public life. It was also a site of inter-class animosity.
Sammy Davis Jr, wearing a Beatles t-shirt, performs on stage at The Talk of The Town in London, England in 1967

Sammy Davis Jr.’s Conversion Mishegoss

Sammy Davis Jr.'s conversion to Judaism in 1960 was met with skepticism, derision, and, yes, jokes by the members of the groups he claimed and embraced.
The influential physicist, Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu in 1958

The Famous and Forgotten Women of STEM

The Editors have compiled their favorite pieces highlighting the many overlooked contributions of women in STEM.