What’s A World Without Climate Justice?
The climate crisis has weaponized emergency for the sake of action, overlooking the injustices inflicted on vulnerable communities for centuries.
The Fungi-Mad Ladies of Long Ago
In mycology’s early days, botanical drawing was, for some women, a calling. Their mushroom renderings were key to establishing this new field.
Gatekeeping Psychology
In the mid-twentieth century, psychologist Edwin Boring attributed the limited role of female psychologists to issues other than discrimination.
When Did Alchemy End?
Despite royal prohibition, transmutation efforts continued underground long after the widely accepted dates for their demise.
Hot Air Balloon Launch Riot!
In the early days of ballooning, launches were prone to failure. When failure looked imminent, the crowd’s mood would begin to turn.
How Computer Science Became a Boys’ Club
Women were the first computer programmers. How, then, did programming become the domain of bearded nerds and manly individualists?
The Mathematical Pranksters behind Nicolas Bourbaki
Bourbaki was gnomic and mythical, impossible to pin down; his mathematics just the opposite: unified, unambiguous, free of human idiosyncrasy.
The Invention of the “Healthy” Caribbean
Europeans used to believe that "bad air" caused diseases, so they distrusted the Caribbean's air quality and land features like swamps.
How Medieval Surgeons Shaped Sex and Gender
Our ideas about surgically “correcting” intersex conditions go back to a shift in the profession of surgery seven centuries ago.
Dreaming of Spaceflight in 1920s Russia
Early in the 20th century, Cosmism was all the rage in Russia, inspiring a utopian and mystical view of interstellar travel.