1610: Dawn of the Extraterrestrial
Galileo's telescopic view of the Moon sparked a giant transformation in the way human beings thought about the natural world.
Longhorns Long Gone (And Returned)
The end of the era of so-called Texas Longhorns doesn’t seem to have been sentimentalized at the time. Why do we wax nostalgic about it now?
From Weapons to Wildlife?
While war is an environmental as well as human disaster, readiness and preparation for armed conflict is more ambiguous ecologically.
How Books Taught Europeans to Smoke
The printed word helped spread the inhaling habit across the continent.
The Pan-American Highway and the Darién Gap
The Pan-American Highway began a century ago with a vision of unfettered motor-vehicle access between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. What happened to the dream?
The True Story of Grizzly Adams
In order to invent a legendary hero of the Wild West, John Adams shook himself free from his life as shoemaker in Massachusetts.
Space Medicine for the Inexperienced Astronaut
The promise of commercial spaceflight raises questions about how untrained travelers will endure the extreme hostility of space.
Fear of an Insect Planet
"Big bug movies" of the 1950s have been interpreted as projections of nuclear anxieties. But what if they were about...actual fear of bugs?