Keeping Time with Incense Clocks
As chronicled by Chinese poet Yu Jianwu, the use of fire and smoke for time measurement dates back to at least the sixth century CE.
Joseph Priestley, Radical Inventor
How scientist and soda water inventor Joseph Priestley came to be an enemy of the state.
The Extremely Real Science behind the Basilisk’s Lethal Gaze
According to the extramission theory of vision, our eyes send out beams of elemental fire that spread, nerve like, to create the visual field.
The Antikythera Shipwreck Keeps Revealing Wonders
In the first century B.C.E., a Roman ship sank near the Greek Island of Antikythera. In 1900 some off-course sponge divers discovered the wreckage.
Fast, Cheap, and Totally Popular: Tintypes
Tintypes were an early, accessible, cheap form of photography, just the thing for on-the-go Americans.
Publishing the Presidents
President Obama made news for being the first President to publish a scholarly article while in office. Many past Presidents can be found in JSTOR.
Preserving the Past: Natural History in North America
A look at early natural history collection methods.
