This composite image contains X-ray data from Chandra (green and blue) that show heated material in the center of a shell generated by a supernova explosion. Optical data from Hubble show the glowing pink rim, which is ambient gas being shocked by the blast wave from the supernova, as well as the surrounding star field. The Type Ia supernova that resulted in the creation of this remnant would have been visible from Earth some 400 years ago.

How Stars Die

Nothing in this Universe is eternal—not even the stars.
Tom Cruise runs in a scene from the film 'Minority Report', 2002

The History of Precrime

UCLA’s Violence Center was squelched by political revolt, not so much for its ambition to stockpile behavioral data as Americans' fear of psychosurgery.
Yeshaia Leibowitz

Revisiting Yeshayahu Leibowitz

The late Israeli thinker spoke of the occupation's moral cost for both sides of the conflict. A philosopher considers how his nuanced arguments hold up in 2023.
Mano Po and Crying Ladies

The Changing Face of Chinese Filipinos

In addition to economic changes in the region, recent box office hits also reflect the impact of the mass naturalization of Chinese Filipino citizens in the 1970s.
Bath Room Interior by the J.L. Mott Iron Works, 1888

Dawn of the Bathroom

The bathroom didn’t become a thing until the nineteenth century, and most working-class US homes added plumbed-in amenities in piecemeal fashion over time.
A golden retriever

Golden Retrievers, Dizziness, and Assassin’s Creed

Well-researched stories from Slate, Yale Environment 360, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
1922 Women's World Games athletes

How a Paris Meet Changed Women’s Track and Field

In the early twentieth century, women were discouraged from competing in track and field. The First International Track Meet for Women helped change that.
Matthew Alexander Henson, 1910

The First Black American to Reach the North Pole

Matthew Henson partnered with Robert Peary on seven Arctic adventures, but their final success brought an end to a longstanding collaboration.
Sylvia Plath's Ariel against a background of bees

Sylvia Plath’s Fascination with Bees

The social organization of the apiary gave Sylvia Plath a tool for examining her aesthetic self, even as her personal world slipped into disarray.
Spectators gather at Stonehenge to watch a group of Druids carry out the Dawn Ceremony on the summer solstice, or longest day of the year, 1956

Stonehenge Before the Druids (Long, Long, Before The Druids)

The clash of academic archaeology and what might be called folk archaeology comes into stark focus at Stonehenge.