Frederick & Nelson, Seattle. A Division of Marshall Field & Company

How the Marshall Plan Sold Europe to Americans

Department-store bazaars let consumers see how glamorous and sophisticated imported goods could be. Ooh, la la!
A male janitor stands and bends over a urinal in a bathroom, scrubbing the porcelain with a detergent.

A Short History of the Public Restroom

How come it's so hard to go in sweet privacy when you're out and about?
Andrew Carnegie (left) and Melvil Dewey (right)

When Melvil Dewey Pursued Andrew Carnegie’s Millions

A clash of library enthusiasts ended with a sexual harassment scandal.
Blue-headed Vireo Nesting

Bird Watcher

Herbert Keightley Job's work represents a major turn in the study of birds. Instead of shooting them, he photographed them, at least some of the time...
An ant in the snow

How Do Insects Survive Winter?

Some species have adapted to get themselves close to freezing without dying.
Daniel Craig in No Time to Die

Why James Bond Villains Prefer Post-Soviet Architecture

In No Time to Die, Bond blows up the villain’s post-Soviet missile silo—just as he does every other modernist building he encounters.
Love Quinn from You

The Culinary Mystery Is a Scrumptious Genre

Bake cupcakes, do crime.
Martha Stewart, 2001

America’s Domestic Gurus Are Bad Girls

Why do the pages of shelter magazines for women seem so pristine? The answer is not what you think, according to one scholar.
California Condor in Big Sur

Condor Parthenogenesis, Smartphones, and Whale Talk

Well-researched stories from Gizmodo, Sapiens, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
View of the Pacific Ocean in Point Mugu State Park, Ventura County, CA

How Drought Could Make Sea-Level Rise Worse

Take southern California, for instance.