Businesspeople working and maintaining social distance on a sofa in a modern office

Here’s Why the CDC Recommends Indoor Masks for the Vaccinated

The CDC guidance applies to areas with high coronavirus transmission rates.
Captain Misson, described by Captain Charles Johnson as the founder of a fictional "pirate utopia" called Libertalia or Libertatia.

Return to Pirate Island

The history of piracy illustrates a surprising connection to democratic Utopian radicalism—and, of course, stolen treasure.
Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë’s Lost Second Novel

The author of the English literary classic Wuthering Heights died tragically young, leaving her second novel unfinished.
Dolly Parton and a cougar

How Dolly Parton Is Literally Like a Cougar

The mountain cat’s cries, like Dolly Parton’s famous songs, carry the diverse voices of rural Appalachia.
A person in African clothing with New York City in the background

The “Social Distance” between Africa and African-Americans

American popular culture inhibits a close relationship between African-Americans and the African continent.
The Bitter Potion by Adriaen Brouwer, ca. 1636 - 1638

Is Disgust Related to Morality?

The disgust response acts as a behavioral immune system, protecting us from disease, but produces strong reactions to perceived out-groups.
Performance of Color-Based Versus Semantic Segmentation

Botanists Use Machine Learning to Accelerate Research

A new artificial intelligence program called ARADEEPOPSIS will help botanists rapidly classify plant phenotypes.
Robert Mitchum aiming gun over car in a scene from the film 'Farewell, My Lovely', 1975.

QAnon as Neo-Noir

The popular conspiracy theory has intriguing parallels with classic noir by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.
Soap Bubbles by Jean Simeon Chardin, ca.1733

The Soap Bubble Trope

Throughout the history of philosophy, literature, art, and science, people have been fascinated with the shimmering surfaces of soap bubbles.
Tapestry of a unicorn hunt

The Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries Depict a “Virgin-Capture Legend”

They’re big in elementary school, but unicorn tableaux also have a complex iconographic history that combines religious and secular myths.