Rebecca Coffey

Rebecca Coffey

Rebecca Coffey is a science and culture journalist (Scientific American, Discover Magazine, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Vermont Public Radio, PsychologyToday.com, the book Unspeakable Truths and Happy Endings, and the essay collection Science and Lust). She is also a humorist (the book Nietzsche’s Angel Food Cake: And Other Recipes for the Intellectually Famished) and a novelist (Hysterical: Anna Freud’s Story). More info is at RebeccaCoffey.com.

Emma and Charles Darwin

Natural Science

Darwin in Love

Charles Darwin, who of all people should have known better, married his first cousin. Did his love for Emma color his later works?

Editors' Picks

James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni in Conversation

In 1971, two legends of Black letters discussed Black manhood, white racism, the role of the writer, and the responsibility to teach.

Science & Technology

Can We Build a Better Facebook?

Is it time to turn our back on Facebook? And if so, what social network could possibly replace it?

Science & Technology

The Anatomists of Ancient Alexandria

Cultural forces under the Ptolemaic dynasty briefly allowed scholars like Herophilus to practice dissection—and possibly vivisection—on human subjects.

Politics & History

The Genocide Before the Shoah

For a century, Jews in Turkey have maintained a strategic silence when it comes to recognizing the Armenian genocide. Could that be changing?

Politics & History

Wilhelm Reich: Twice Burned

A psychoanalyst and physician, Reich fled the Nazis only to be detained by the US as an “enemy alien” during World War II. And then came the sexual revolution.