Well-researched stories from the Washington Post, Science Magazine, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

One of the first US municipal laws demanding residential segregation, passed in 1910 in Baltimore, has roots in European colonial policies.

Parasites can be creepy, but according to some ecologists, parasites may substantially impact entire ecosystems—for the better.

At various sites throughout Peru and Argentina, archaeologists have found remains of child sacrifices.

In the 1990s, lesbian characters were repeatedly transformed into "close friends" in film adaptions of LGBTQ-themed books.

In a famous 1910 photograph "In a Piegan Lodge," a small clock appears between two seated Native American men. In a later print, the clock is missing.

The marketing of scents through clever branding, rather than real differences in what’s being sold, originated in nineteenth-century France.

When volcanos erupt, the type and location of the lava determines what habitat will develop after it stops flowing.

Henrietta Lacks's "immortal" cell line, called "HeLa," is used in everything from cancer treatments to vaccines. A new portrait memorializes her.

Mother Superior Benedetta Carlini, a visionary nun of Renaissance Italy, was accused of heresy and “female sodomy.”