The best of the web this week: National Geographic on a fluid-filled mesh layer beneath our skin, Wired on gene-edited food, and more.

The Romans certainly have a reputation for using poisons, but what do we really know about this form of assassination in the classical era?

As bacteria develop resistance to widely-used antibiotics, some researchers are turning to bacteria’s natural enemy: a very special virus called a bacteriophage.

One scholar sees the toaster as a symbol of a modernized, industrialized society—the culprit of bread’s mechanization and a perpetrator of assimilation.

The door to spring is guarded by fools, but that's ok, because they're not all that serious. And everybody knows the password: April Fools!

The first African American to publish a book of poetry has remained a controversial figure in the Black community.

The Anglo-Saxon goddess Frig has often been cited as the origin of the word Friday, but one scholar questions whether such a deity ever existed.

King Charles VI of France was the most exalted representative of a rash of "Glass Men," who appeared throughout Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries.

President Xi Jinping of China recently managed to abolish term limits. What compels some leaders to discard the rules of the very systems that led them to power?

Leslie Jamison's The Recovering is self-aware about being the same old story, recalling the redemption narratives of Rousseau and St. Augustine.