The Pharaoh’s Curse or the Pharaoh’s Cure?
A toxic fungus from King Tutankhamun’s tomb yields cancer-fighting compounds.
Atlantic Sturgeon Were Fished Almost to Extinction
Ancient DNA reveals how the Chesapeake Bay population changed over centuries.
The Caterpillars That Can Kill You
Some species make venoms that are deadly. With more research, those toxic compounds could yield useful medicines.
Call the Midwives—Assuming Any Are Left
While midwife-attended deliveries are the norm in the United Kingdom, they’re the exception in the United States. Time was, this difference wasn’t so stark.
When Aldous Huxley Dropped Acid
In Hollywood, the esteemed ex-pat made the acquaintance of Alfred Hubbard, a Kentucky-born smuggler of ill-repute who introduced him to a brave, new world.
Lai Teck, International Man of Mystery
A Vietnamese double agent who infiltrated and led the Communist Party of Malaya in the 1930s, Lai Teck also spied for the British and the Japanese.
Shakespeare and Fanfiction
Despite an enduring slice of audience that treats his work as precious and mythic, most Shakespeare fans have rarely met an adaptive concept they didn’t like.
Grilling the Globe
Could meat taxes help to curb over-consumption of beef and mitigate climate change?
Half Past Dementia
Drawing a clock has become a standard test of cognitive impairment, but there’s no consensus on who should do it or how.
Legacies Lost and Found
Say Anarcha tells the story of the enslaved women experimented on by a self-aggrandizing gynecologist. Its related online archive aims to reinvent the nature of bibliography.