Centuries of women and booze (The London Review of Books)
by Sophie Lewis
In many times and places, authorities have discouraged or forbidden women from drinking. But women have often been the ones brewing and distilling alcoholic beverages, too.

The art of science (The Conversation)
By Chris Curran
From Renaissance-era anatomical drawings to a 21st-century technicolor image of a zebrafish embryo’s developing eye, art has a special power to open up scientific inquiry to students and the public at large.

Meet the tree-torturers (Atlas Obscura)
by Diana Hubbell
As climate change brings more droughts and warmer winters, how will the trees that give us fruits and nuts hold out? To find out—and figure out how to help—botanists are putting trees through hell.

How humans and vegetables develop together (Smithsonian Magazine)
by Abigail Eisenstadt
Tens of thousands of years ago, gourds were hard, baseball-size things eaten by giant creatures like mastodons. Their transformation into zucchinis and pumpkins, like the domestication of other vegetables, was the result of a complex dance between people and plants.

What’s so great about the transcontinental railroads? (Governing)
by Jake Blumgart
We often learn about the construction of the transcontinental railroads as an American triumph. Historian Richard White sees it differently, creating a fresh context for thinking about infrastructure development today.

Got a hot tip about a well-researched story that belongs on this list? Email us here.