The Racism of 19th-Century Advertisements
Illustrated advertising cards invoked ethnic stereotypes, using black women as foils in order to appeal to white consumers.
When Endangered Wildlife Gets Inbred
The endangered eastern lowland gorilla populations are now so small that the species is facing a new threat: loss of genetic diversity.
Asian Families, the RAND Book, and Science Fiction
New books and scholarship from Stanford University Press, University of Minnesota, and MIT Press.
When Was the First Handshake?
A Curious Reader asks: When and how did the handshake originate?
A Decades-in-the-Making Artwork in a Dormant Volcano
James Turrell is building an observatory that uses the human eye instead of optical instruments. It may soon be open to the public for the first time.
The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis
After triumphantly leading the Lewis and Clark expedition, Meriwether Lewis was either murdered or committed suicide. Did syphilis play a role?
Why Can’t the TSA Just Go on Strike?
The post-9/11 expansion of federal powers over transportation security was also an extension of power over the security workforce.
Public Dissection Was a Gruesome Spectacle
Renaissance-era anatomists taught people to “knowe thyself” by reading the books of bodies.
Don’t Fear the Sex Recession
We shouldn't see changes in Americans’ sex lives as a single phenomenon with an overarching cause.
The “Real” Warp Drive
Sure, it sounds like science fiction. But some researchers suggest that warp drives might actually be a possibility.