An illustration of Mormon leader James Strang speaking with a Mormon woman

When Adventists and Mormons Turned Sex-Positive

How the once sex-averse Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Seventh Day Adventism embraced (married, monogamous) sex as a positive ideal.
A group of business people chasing a dollar on a string

When Big Rewards Don’t Pay Off

One would think that offering potentially big rewards would inspire workers to create better work. A study found a more complicated picture.
A woman with a protective mask in a plane

Do Airplanes Really Make You Sick?

A Curious Reader asks: Am I really at a higher risk of getting sick on an airplane?
Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Life of Forgotten Poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon

She was known as the "female Byron." So why doesn't anyone read L.E.L. anymore?
The number 2

The Quantum Random Number Generator

It’s real. And it will use quantum entanglement to generate true mathematical randomness. Here’s why that matters.
"On Decoration Day" Political cartoon c. 1900 by John T. McCutcheon

The Evolution of Memorial Day

What started as a solemn commemoration of dead Civil War soldiers has become a celebration of summer. Here's why that makes total sense.
A person's hands holding an iPhone

It’s Time to Break Up the Apple App Store

Apple's stranglehold on the App Store is problematic. Our technology columnist explains why.
Raking rice paddies in China with an ox-drawn plough. Engraving by J. June after A. Heckel.

Chinese Peasants Taught the USDA to Farm Organically in 1909

A hundred years later, we are still learning.
A Diffusion MRI, also referred to as diffusion tensor imaging or DTI, of the human brain

Inception Machines, Weird Ice, and a Post-Roe World

Well-researched stories from Quanta, Wired, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Joseph Priestley, 1822, in front of a colorful background

Joseph Priestley, Radical Inventor

How scientist and soda water inventor Joseph Priestley came to be an enemy of the state.