A chest depicting a king making an offering to the crocodile-god Sobek

Crocodiles in Ancient Egypt

According to archaeologists, it looks like worshipers of the croc deity Sobek bred the Nile's most famous reptile for mummification.
A man doing the dishes at home

An Effective Treatment for Diabetes? Try an Apartment

Subsidized housing promotes the kind of stability that makes it easier for people with type 2 diabetes to maintain their health.
A mother plays the guitar while her two daughters sing / Guitarist Joan Jett of the rock band "The Runaways" performs on stage in Los Angeles in August, 1977

At First, the Guitar Was a “Women’s Instrument”

The history of the guitar shows that musical instruments have been gendered—but just how changes over time.
Voters dropping their voting slips into the ballot box.

Why Do We Vote by Secret Ballot?

Election days used to be raucous affairs, with individual votes sometimes cast orally for all to hear.
Children enacting heteronormative gender roles

Bringing Up Baby Straight

Many parents just assume their kids will turn out heterosexual. That's part of heteronormativity.
A film still from The Frog

The Bizarre Marvels of Segundo de Chomón, Father of Spanish Cinema

Segundo de Chomón made “trick films” that experimented with color and temporality, influencing the surrealist work of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.
UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 13: Supreme Court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett testifies on the second day of her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Hart Senate Office Building on Tuesday, October 13, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/POOL)

Religious Identity and Supreme Court Justices

If successful, Amy Coney Barrett would become the 7th current Supreme Court justice to be raised a Catholic, and the sixth conservative Christian.
Cover of Trumbull Park by Frank London Brown

How Trumbull Park Exposed the Brutal Legacy of Segregation

Frank London Brown’s 1959 novel, which presents a powerful story of white supremacist hatred, has been selected for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.
On the left, Heliconia tarumaensis Barreiros (with yellow bracts); on the right, Heliconia acuminata L.C. Richard (with yellow and red bracts). Dumbarton Oaks Rare Book Collection.

Plant of the Month: Heliconia

Heliconias can distinguish among pollinators like hummingbirds and respond selectively to their visits.
Gouverneur Morris

Gouverneur Morris’s Secret Sex Diary

The author of the preamble to the Constitution spent years in Europe as a businessman, diplomat, and connoisseur of the pleasures of the flesh.