Underground Conquest: Cave Exploration and Nationalism
As cave exploration became more popular and speleology developed as an academic discipline, cave explorers were drawn into a problematic European nationalism.
Lite Intermediate Black Holes
Meet the supermassive black hole’s smaller, much more mysterious cousin.
Fifty Years of Fractals
A half century ago ago, Benoit Mandelbrot coined the word "fractal" and pioneered a new type of geometry.
Shifting Forces: The Evolving Debate Around Dark Energy
New evidence suggests the universe might not behave as expected, raising questions about the costs of being wrong.
La Brea and Beyond
Pits and seeps full of tar and asphalt offer new insights into old ecosystems and cultures.
Christiaan Huygens and the Scientific Secrets of Saturn
Seventeenth-century science was so competitive that Christiaan Huygens used a cipher to conceal his Saturn observations when sharing them with interlocutors.
Life According to Phosphorus
Phosphorus is essential for fertilizing high-yield agriculture. The US domestic supply, restricted to Florida, is expected to run out in a couple of decades.
The History of the Ocean, as Told by Tiny Beautiful Fossils
Bountiful remains of foraminifera reveal how organisms responded to climate disturbances of the past. They can help predict the future, too.
The Legacy of Asilomar
The 1975 scientific conference laid the ground rules governing the next half century (and counting) of biological research and public scrutiny of it.