Many 19th-century observers were disturbed by the way young people took the co-ed sport of croquet as an opportunity to flirt.

Some of the most dazzling coloration you see in birds doesn’t actually exist.

Burning household trash in massive incinerators saves landfill space, but it also introduces a host of other waste management issues.

Chantal Akerman’s The Eighties proves that a musical set in a mall can be a significant feminist work.

The pseudoscience of phrenology included a notion of body as text that Whitman loved. But the craze of "bumpology" also had a darker side.

Worried about the high price of prescription drugs, a senator proposed a bill that would have regulated Big Pharma -- back in the 1950s.

The bacterium that causes the plague emerged relatively recently, as bacterium go. And yet the pandemics it's created have altered the world.

James Graham, founder of the Temple of Health, benefitted from his undeniable flair for showmanship and his talent for leaping on trends.

Corporal punishment of students largely fell out of favor in the early 19th century. The preferred new system used prizes to encourage good behavior.

Early in the 20th century, Cosmism was all the rage in Russia, inspiring a utopian and mystical view of interstellar travel.