The “Real” Warp Drive
Sure, it sounds like science fiction. But some researchers suggest that warp drives might actually be a possibility.
How Far Does the Periodic Table Go?
Efforts to fill the periodic table raise questions of special relativity that “strike at the very heart of chemistry as a discipline.”
Cycloramas: The Virtual Reality of the 19th Century
Immersive displays brought 19th century spectators to far-off places and distant battles. The way they portrayed history, however, was often inaccurate.
The Tangled History of Weaving with Spider Silk
Spider silk is as strong as steel and as light as a feather, but attempts to industrialize its production have gotten stuck, so to speak.
Finding a Murderer in a Victim’s Eye
In late 19th-century forensics, optography was all the rage. This pseudoscience held that what someone saw just before death would be imprinted on their eye.
When Clairvoyants Searched for a Lost Expedition
When Captain Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition went awry, clairvoyants claimed to be able to contact the crew members. Why did people believe them?
When Artists Painted with Real Mummies
The popular paint pigment called “mummy brown” used to be made from—yep—ground-up Egyptian mummies.
Is the 30-Year-Long Styrofoam War Nearing Its End?
Neither banning nor recycling will rid us of Styrofoam. Can we live without it?
Porklife: Building a Better Pig
Can we reconcile our growing appetite for meat with our desire to treat factory animals better?
Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?
Can empirical data about human behavior make the “soft” sciences more like the “hard” ones? New interdisciplinary fields are voting yes.