Was It Really a Mummy’s Curse?
A slew of mysterious deaths following the opening of King Tut's tomb prompted one epidemiologist to investigate.
The Lost City of Heracleion
Once a bustling metropolis, this long-lost Egyptian city flooded, sank, and was forgotten -- until archeologists rediscovered it.
Regrowing Germany’s Trees After WWII
The cities of Dresden and Hamburg saw their green spaces decimated by WWII, but each city grew back its trees in a very different way.
The Pirate-y Life of Ferdinand Magellan
Magellan’s voyage in search of the “Spice Islands” was marked by storms, sharks, and scurvy—plus multiple attempts at mutiny.
How Janet Flanner’s “High-Class Gossip” Changed America
The journalist's witty Paris Letters for the New Yorker helped establish Americans' feelings of superiority over Europe.
How the Paris Catacombs Solved a Cemetery Crisis
One of the most popular tourist destinations in Paris—the Catacombs—was started as a solution to the intrusion of death upon daily life.
Will the U.S. Ever Catch a High-Speed Train?
Over 20 countries have high-speed train travel, carrying 1.6 billion passengers a year. The United States is lagging behind.
Should Museums Display Shrunken Heads?
Tsantsas, or shrunken human heads, remind us of how museums have often been founded on a violent trade in indigenous culture.
Brazil’s Maroon State
For nearly a century, Quilombo of Palmares was an Afro-Brazilian state, populated and run by people who had freed themselves from slavery.
The Amoral Scientist
Fritz Haber was a chemist who made discoveries that improved global agriculture… but also helped spawn the modern era of chemical warfare.