Super-Resolution Microscopes Showcase the Inner Lives of Cells
Advanced light microscopy techniques have come into their own—and are giving scientists a new understanding of human biology and what goes wrong in disease.
Dates: Civilization’s Sweetest Indulgence
Offshoots from the “Tree of Life” traveled from Mesopotamia to the Levant to the United States, beguiling everyone with their toothsome confections.
Convincing Peasants to Fly in the Soviet Union
With air-minded films, poems, and demonstrations, Soviet leaders sought to lift peasants out of their “backward” lives and into the world of the modern proletariat.
How Farmers Can Help Rescue Water-Loving Birds
Cranes, sandpipers, ducks, geese and many other waterbirds have lost essential rest stops along their seasonal migration routes. Bird-friendly agriculture can assist in filling the gaps.
Actual American Rattlesnakes
Historians are recovering the overlooked history of North America’s Crotalus horridus, the timber rattlesnake.
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.
Before Deep Blue: the Automaton Chess Player
You may have heard of IBM’s chess-playing computer, but Johann Nepomuk Maelzel’s Automaton Chess Player beat Deep Blue to the (mechanical) punch. Check mate.
Saguaro Cactus: A Desert Sentinel’s Prickly Plight
The saguaro cactus has evolved to endure dry days and high temperatures, but even this resilient plant struggles to cope with the effects of climate change.
Who Owns the Ground Beneath Your Feet?
Carbon removal, a proposed solution to climate change, will require the injection of CO2 underground—but under whose property?
The Pharaoh’s Curse or the Pharaoh’s Cure?
A toxic fungus from King Tutankhamun’s tomb yields cancer-fighting compounds.