Cubes of red jello on white background

How Jell-O Wobbled Its Way to Pop Culture Greatness

Jell-O reveals volumes about things that obsess, upset, and fuel Americans. 
Colourful sponge garden with Sea Tulips (Pyura spinifera). Fly Point, Port Stephens, NSW

The Reef Hidden Beneath the Amazon Mud

A hidden sponge reef has been found in an unexpected place.
College Hall opened in 1875 as the main building of Smith College.

Daniel Aaron: Americanist

Daniel Aaron, a forerunner in the field of American Studies, has passed away at 103.
Extra Credit Suggested Readings from JSTOR Daily Editors

Suggested Readings: Brain Maps, Water Dangers, and Rejecting Self-Esteem

Extra Credit: Our pick of stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship. Brought to you each Tuesday from the editors of JSTO
Chicago teachers striking

The Rise of Teachers’ Unions

Teachers' unions have been an important force in America since the 1950s.
Sigrid Undset

The Best Book You’ve Never Read

The best book you've never read may just be 'Kristin Lavransdatter,' which won its author Sigrid Undset the Nobel Prize in 1928.
Depressed man

Anxiety and Treatment

Anxiety is on the rise in the general populace, says Will Hutton in this weekend’s Guardian.
Polish Codebreakers

Cracking Enigma: The Polish Connection

Bletchley Park's code-breakers are famous for cracking Enigma, but they had a major assist from three Polish mathematicians, who had done it in 1932.
Mary Cassatt's The Young Mother

Maternity, #Meternity, and the Military

Maternity leave as we know it today may have its origins in turn-of-the-century French militarism.
Inky the octopus swimming in a tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier, New Zealand. Courtesy of the National Aquarium of New Zealand

The Flight of Inky the Octopus

Inky the Octopus made one of the natural world's most daring escapes when he somehow breached his tank to get to the Pacific. But how did he do it?