Why Did “Thieves’ Cant” Carry an Unshakeable Allure?
If thieves’ cant—a language known only to criminals—was the Devil’s cabinet, bourgeois society couldn’t help but peep inside.
The “Miscegenation” Troll
The term “miscegenation” was coined in an 1864 pamphlet by an anonymous author.
Public Dissection Was a Gruesome Spectacle
Renaissance-era anatomists taught people to “knowe thyself” by reading the books of bodies.
What’s Causing the Rise of Hoarding Disorder?
Now that the DSM lists severe hoarding as a disorder apart from OCD, psychologists are asking what explains its prevalence.
When Dancing Plagues Struck Medieval Europe
The tarantella is named for a peasant woman from southern Italy whose tarantula bite started a contagious dancing fever!
The Many Metaphors of Brexit
How do metaphors shape political perceptions? And what do they mean for the future of Europe?
How Far Does the Periodic Table Go?
Efforts to fill the periodic table raise questions of special relativity that “strike at the very heart of chemistry as a discipline.”
Down the Research Rat Hole
While writing her forthcoming book about Polynesia, the author discovered the work of Teuira Henry, a scholar and folklorist who studied ancient Tahiti.
Our Best Stories of 2018
Victorian librarians, Mister Rogers, queer time, and Jane Austen's subversive linguistics, oh my!