One of the most popular tourist destinations in Paris—the Catacombs—was started as a solution to the intrusion of death upon daily life.

Well-researched stories from Quanta, the New Yorker, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Chicago's "Eleanor Clubs" were designed to give young, working women affordable and congenial places to live.

Submarines played a major role in Word War I. But the first submersible was actually used, though unsuccessfully, in the Revolutionary War.

Posters were originally a method of advertising and promotion, but in the 1960s, a new crop of psychedelic signs became emblematic of the counterculture.

Human brains take a long time, and a lot of energy, to grow to their mature state. This may well be an evolutionary tradeoff for having such big brains.

According to philosopher Max Weber, science led to humanity's disenchantment. But reaching AI Singularity might spark our sense of wonder all over again.

Napoleon didn't like sitting for portraits, and yet artists and mass market prints helped cement his legendary status.

A Curious Reader asks: How exactly does exposure to sunlight cause the the human body to synthesize Vitamin D3?

Cultural explanations for alcoholism have changed significantly throughout the years, sometimes blaming social problems, sometimes psychological.