Eoneophron infernalis

A Fresh Hell (Chicken)

A newly identified “Hell chicken” species suggests dinosaurs weren’t sliding toward extinction before the fateful asteroid hit.
Picture of Kerria lacca from the book, Indian Insect Life: a Manual of the Insects of the Plains by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy

As You Lakh It

How did an oleoresin produced by insects in Asia become a standard part of European furniture manufacture and conservation?
A 1906 Postcard from the National Electric Light Association's convention held at the boardwalk in Atlantic City New Jersey

Generating Electricity…and Uncertainty

As the tobacco and electrical industries demonstrate, US corporations have a history of sowing doubt for profit.
A deep image from the Dark Energy Survey showing the field covered by one of the individual detectors in the Dark Energy Camera.

Astronomers Use AI to Shed Light on Dark Energy

A new measurement offers insights on the density of the mysterious force driving the Universe’s expansion.
American Mink in Surrey, England.

Take Back Your Mink

Could lab-grown fur be an ethical alternative to fur farming?
The Honeywell 316 Kitchen Computer

A Computer in Every Kitchen?

The 1969 Honeywell Kitchen Computer is a case study of early computer failures—or is it?
A woman kneels at the headstone in the Detroit Canine Cemetery in Michigan

An Epitaph for Fido

Pet cemeteries document how humans’ relationships with their pets—and their deaths—have evolved since the Victorian era.
An illustration of a globe being heated over a fire on a spit

Grilling the Globe

Could meat taxes help to curb over-consumption of beef and mitigate climate change?
An illustration of a sick horse in a barn, 1872

Civilization Without Horses: The Epizootic of 1872

We’re all now too familiar with the words “pandemic” and “epidemic,” but how about “epizootic”?
Dewdrops hang suspended from switchgrass at Waubay National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota.

Switchgrass: An Old Grass Gets a New Use

The perennial prairie grass used to cover large swaths of the American Midwest, creating vibrant ecosystems where birds, butterflies, and bison roamed.