As American as Parmesan Cheese (Slate)
by Willa Paskin
According to one Italian historian, the most authentic Parmesan cheese is found in… Wisconsin. An investigation into that claim traces the way Italian and Italian-American food have grown and changed together.

Whatever Happened to Nanotech? (Aeon)
by Philip Ball
Around the turn of the twenty-first century, it was common knowledge in some circles that nanotechnology was about to cure cancer, create unlimited energy, and allow humanity to reach the stars. That kind of utopian projection around a magical new technology might sound familiar today. So how did it work out?

Beyond Objectivity (The Conversation)
by Sara Giordano
Like everything else humans do, scientific research is shaped by the cultural contexts in which it occurs. That doesn’t mean we have to give up on discovering useful things about the world.

The Dangerous Twist Craze (Nursing Clio)
by Hannah Yusuf and Beth Linker
When The Twist was all the rage in the early 1960s, some doctors warned of the potential dangers to joints and muscles. The medical concerns were rooted in a very specific narrative of racial danger for white women.

How Wild Horses Fight Wildfire (Mongabay)
by Jeremy Hance
Tens of thousands of years ago, wild horses and aurochs shaped Spain’s highlands. Then, human agriculture changed everything—and left the land vulnerable to fire when people retreated to cities. A rewilding project aims to restore a landscape much like the prehistoric one.

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