Workers sit in the control room of reactor number two inside the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Chernobyl’s Control Room Is Open for Tourists

Who's up for a radioactive selfie?
The Premature Burial by Antoine Wiertz

The Fear of Being Buried Alive (and How to Prevent It)

Pliny the Elder remarked: “Such is the condition of humanity, and so uncertain is men’s judgment, that they cannot determine even death itself.”
Runners cross the Verrazano Bridge during the 1994 New York Marathon

The Critique of Pure Marathon

Marathon entrants today are more likely to be seeking personal validation rather than competitive victory.
Girls in gym class, 1920

The Weird Psychological Theory behind Gym Class

The initial promoters of gym class believed that a child’s mind would “remember” evolutionary phases through the stimulation of muscle tissue.
Grapes on a vine

Will There Be Wine After Climate Change?

Vintners may have to adjust their centuries-old traditions to keep the wines flowing
A gamer playing in the dark

High Misdemeanors, Gaming Addiction, and Lots of Ghosts

Well-researched stories from Vox, The Atlantic, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, 2019 Laureates in Economic Sciences

Why Are Random Trials So Common in Anti-Poverty Work?

Three economists who have devoted their careers to studying poverty alleviation won the Nobel Prize in economics. How did their methods catch on?
An American and Turkish soldier in Syria

U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Turkey, pt. 2

This is not the first time the presence of American nuclear weapons in Turkey has been part of a crisis.
A box for a 23andMe test kit

The Woman Scholar Who Foresaw the Dangers of DNA Testing

In 2003, Christine Rosen wrote that "[w]e may come to know too much about ourselves to truly live in freedom."
A woman looking at her phone in bed

Blue Light Isn’t the Main Source of Eye Fatigue and Sleep Loss

It's your computer.