duck billed platypus

Our Best Stories of 2018

Victorian librarians, Mister Rogers, queer time, and Jane Austen's subversive linguistics, oh my!
A cow in a field

Can Cows Help Mitigate Climate Change? Yes, They Can!

Livestock emit greenhouse gases. They also can sequester carbon and boost biodiversity.
Interior with breastfeeding woman

Breast Milk as Medicine

Human breast milk has been recommended as a cure-all since the 17th century.
A man on a laptop

Making Men Online

How the internet has both reinforced and tweaked traditional gender pathologies, especially for boys and men.
A spoonful of cookie dough

“Silent Night,” Cookie Dough, and Alpha-Gal Allergies

Well-researched stories from America Magazine, Mosaic, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Two young people reading together.

Is Fan Fiction a Helpful Literacy Tool?

Some teachers are adapting to the internet age by trying to understand the "new literacies" of today's students.
Missionaries speaking to a local group

The Mixed Environmental Legacy of Missionaries

The recent murder of Christian missionary John Chau has drawn attention to the effects outsiders have on native tribes and ecology.
Cyclorama in South End Boston, 1964.

Cycloramas: The Virtual Reality of the 19th Century

Immersive displays brought 19th century spectators to far-off places and distant battles. The way they portrayed history, however, was often inaccurate.
Jarena Lee

Jarena Lee, The First Woman African American Autobiographer

Jarena Lee was the first female preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1836, she published her autobiography.
Restoration of Burgess Shale fossil arthropod Waptia fieldensis

Meeting Earth’s First Animals at the Burgess Shale

The Burgess Shale is a huge deposit of unique fossils that reveals records of the middle Cambrian, a vital period in evolutionary history.