A glass slipper

Interrogating “Cinderella”

Cinderella, the ever-changing fairytale, inspires no shortage of analysis and debate.
Sculpture of a geode divided in two with various neon colors inside; artist Elyse Graham

Sculptor Elyse Graham and The Artistic Fascination with Geodes

Artist Elyse Graham makes wonderfully bright, geode sculptures using latex and urethane, while poets pay tribute to this natural form with their words.
Microscope view of bacteria

She Has Your Eyes. And Your Gut Bacteria’s Genome!

Upending our entire understanding of inheritance, an infant can apparently inherit genes directly from her mother’s bacteria.
Newspaper from 1851, titled Exhibition Supplement to the Illustrated London News

Anonymity and Public Debate—in the 1800s

But 150 years ago in Great Britain, the question of what role anonymity should play in public discourse looked completely different than today.
A pinned map indicating Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad for Beginners

An introduction to the Kaliningrad Oblast, surrounded by Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea.
Saint Patrick stained glass window from Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland, CA.
By Sicarr (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Will the Real St. Patrick Please Stand Up

The "St. Patrick" celebrated on March 17 every year has never existed. He was, and is, a metaphorical, literary, and religious conceit.
Table Flip

All the Feels: the Morphology of Reaction Gifs

From visual emojis depicting simple emotional states, it's a short step to emotion or reaction gifs, used to respond in playful ways to online discussions.
A pot being washed in a sink

To Avoid Allergies, Skip the Dishwasher

A new study says that children raised in homes where dishes are typically washed by hand have lower rates of allergies than where the dishwasher is used.
Two students look on while holding drinks

Fraternities, Sororities, and Racism

Complex racial dynamics affect members of non-white fraternities even when they didn't involve explicit racism.
Black and white illustration of a chained elephant, titled Uganda, giving a side glance to the explorer and colonizer who are discussing it

The Original White Elephant

The unsettling story of Barnum's White Elephant.