Preprints, Science, and the News Cycle
Preprints are academic papers that haven't been peer-reviewed yet. When preprints make news, that's often overlooked.
“Beating the Bounds”
How did people find out where their local boundaries were before there were reliable maps?
The First Movie Kiss
The public fascination was so intense that fans soon started demanding live reenactments.
Can We Protect Against Coronavirus by Rewriting Our Genomes?
Genome recoding could offer new modes of virus resistance, but the technology raises serious ethical concerns.
The Linguistics of Cooties (and Other Weird Things Kids Say)
The game of cooties lets children learn about the idea of contagion, but kid culture and wordplay aren't meant for adults.
Has the U.S. Government Abandoned Birds?
Recent changes to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 leave birds vulnerable to industry, experts say.
Yes, Mass Observation Still Wants to Know about Your Life
The organization has collected interviews and diaries recording ordinary life in Britain over the course of decades. A pandemic won't stop it now.
Shrew Spines, COVID Mysteries, and Pandemic Poverty
Well-researched stories from CNN, the New York Times, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
How Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression
They worked over sixty hours a week but were also insatiable readers.
Was Russia Destined to Be an Autocracy?
The most important factors that steered Russia away from democracy, says one scholar, weren't inevitable.