The Secret Sign Language of the Ottoman Court
Deaf servants were favored companions of the Ottoman sultan, and their facility in nonverbal communication made them indispensable to the court.
How Forensic DNA Evidence Can Lead to Wrongful Convictions
Forensic DNA evidence has been a game-changer for law enforcement, but research shows it can contribute to miscarriages of justice.
How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn it Into a Sponge City
Cities encourage potentially devastating floods by laying down asphalt and pavement. Could this be avoided by making them "spongier" and more absorbent?
How Hollywood Thrived Through the Red Scare
A young Richard Nixon started asking studio executives why they didn't produce anti-Communist movies. The studios quickly responded with anti-Red films.
Radical Questions: Am I My Memories?
"White Bear," an episode of the television show Black Mirror, documents the cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on the protagonist, an amnesiac.
Do We Have Moral Obligations to Robots?
The recent film Blade Runner 2049 engages with questions raised by Karel Čapek and Isaac Asimov: What do we owe our creations (and what do they owe us)?
The Truth About Sherlock Holmes: He’s Actually Henry David Thoreau
A tongue in cheek comparison between the British fictional sleuth and the American Transcendentalist author, just because.
Is Don Quixote to Blame for Modern Movie Reboots?
The culture industry has long repackaged content from the past for the present. Just look at Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote.
What Rum and Cokes Have to do With War
What could be more American than a sugary soda mixed with a liquor made from sugar? The origins of rum and Coke is more problematic than you might expect.
How the American Civil War Shaped Marxism
Although Karl Marx never saw the U.S., he thought long and hard about how it fit into his theory, especially during the Civil War.