Kinoautomat

The Cold War Origins of Interactive Cinema

The world’s first interactive cinema system, the Kinoautomat was the brainchild of Radúz Činčera, a Czech cinematographer.
A shameful looking dog in a pig costume

Does My Dog Really Feel Shame?

A Curious Reader asks: When my dog gets that “hang dog” expression after I scold her for misbehavior, is she really ashamed?
The Lost World (1925) - film poster

The 1925 Dinosaur Movie That Paved the Way for King Kong

During a slow day at work, a young marble cutter named Willis O’Brien began sculpting tiny T-Rex figurines.
Tree thinning in a national forest shows detail of the logging industry in Oregon.

Does Forest Thinning Work?

Does forest thinning, a land management strategy, offer an effective solution to the problem of forest fires?
Binocular-framed view of Tweety Bird who is also holding a pair of binoculars

The Tweety Bird Test

How a classic Tweety Bird cartoon became a mainstay in linguistics research.
Che Guevara

Che Guevara

In 1964, 5 years after the end of the Cuban revolution, Che Guevara wrote for an academic journal. Read the Cuban leader in his own words.
Central Arizona Project (CAP) Canal, Phoenix, AZ

What Desert Cities Can Teach Us about Water

Pushed by necessity, the country’s least sustainable region evolved to master its water use. As climate heats up, other cities may adopt similar tactics.
Queen Nzinga (1582-1663) of Matamba

An African Queen, Alien Signals, and Poison Eating

Well-researched stories from Longreads, The Atlantic, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ada_Lovelace_portrait.jpg

Ada Lovelace, Pioneer

Ada Lovelace wrote extensive notes on the world’s first computer. Her innovations foreshadowed those used in twentieth-century PCs.
Dolphins in captivity

The Ethics of Research on Captive Dolphins

Researchers say that dolphins are so smart that captivity causes them psychological harm. But getting data in the open ocean can be tricky.