Emilie Chatelet

Émilie Du Châtelet: Heroine of the Enlightenment

Émilie Du Châtelet was one of the great figures of the Enlightenment in France.
Love Park skaters

Skateboarders: The Shock Troops of Gentrification

In Philadelphia's Love Park, gentrification had an unlikely face.
JSTOR Daily Friday Reads

New International Books

Five new books out this week, and links to related content you won’t find anywhere else.
Bryan Sewall campaign poster

Populism for Beginners

If the appeal of Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Brexit can all be described as "populist," then what is populism?
altruistic marmot

Why Do Animals Share?

Natural selection should weed out the do-gooders and leave only egoists, but animals share just the same.
Self driving car navigating its way around safety cones

Do Reminders of Death Affect Reckless Driving?

Self-driving cars are meant to eliminate reckless driving. But can anything really stop motorists from making bad choices?
Abel Meeropol

The Unlikely Origins of “Strange Fruit”

The man behind the anti-lynching anthem "Strange Fruit" was a white, Jewish, Communist named Abel Meeropol.
Philando Castile shooting video

How Do I (Not) Look? Live Feed Video and Viral Black Death

When we have the choice to look, we are bound ethically and politically to what we witness and what we do with what we have seen.
Hevelius map

Where Did the Moon Come From?

Despite years of study, it is only since the 1980s that a theory of the moon's origin has coalesced.
Buzz Aldrin with equipment on the moon

What the Space Race Left Behind

How should the artifacts of the space race be preserved?