Ron Jaffe/AMC

Mad Men and Its Obsession with Frenchness

Mad Men’s in-universe fascination with Frenchness was so frequent and important to the plot(s) that it might as well have been a main character.
Clockwise: Agha Shahid Ali, Elizabeth Bishop, William Logan, Paisley Rekdal, Charles Fort, Tim Seibles.

10 Villanelles by Modern and Contemporary Poets

Read these recursive, nineteen-line poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Paisley Rekdal, William Logan, Agha Shahid Ali, and more.
A high stack of books and a mobile phone

Online Reading, African Archaeology, and Inca Literacy

Well-researched stories from Undark, NPR, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Send in the Clowns

Lulu Adams came from a long, illustrious line of circus performers and was credited—even if wrongly—with being the world’s first female clown.
Digital visualization of a colourful fractal called a Mandelbrot set.

Fifty Years of Fractals

A half century ago ago, Benoit Mandelbrot coined the word "fractal" and pioneered a new type of geometry.
A nutmeg farm in the Maluku Islands

Transplanting Nutmeg

Nutmeg originated in the Maluku islands of what’s now Indonesia, but Barbados became known as the Nutmeg Island. Why did the tree wander?
Isador Lubin, Chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1937

Where Do Economic Statistics Come From?

Many ways of measuring the economy came about in the decades between the American Civil War and World War II. We’ve been arguing about them ever since.
Aerial panoramic view of Mbabane, the capitol city of Eswatini

Eswatini: At the King’s Pleasure

Wedged between South Africa and Mozambique, Eswatini is the last absolute monarchy in Africa.
Galen by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

We Love Libraries

Honoring the libraries and librarians that have shaped the way we live, learn, and fight.
At center, the cytoskeleton’s actin fibers in mouse connective tissue cells are seen in yellow; cellular DNA is stained blue

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.