Dance hall illustration

Jane Addams’s Crusade Against Victorian “Dancing Girls”

Jane Addams, a leading Victorian-era reformer, believed dance halls were “one of the great pitfalls of the city.”
Woman in multicolored dress.

Microbes Might Paint Your Next Party Dress

The official “fashion month,” September has concluded its parade of gorgeous outfits. These contain harmful dyes, though. Can microbes make safer colors?
Kadish book

Summoning 17th-Century Scholars: Researching The Weight of Ink

Author Rachel Kadish tells us about how she used JSTOR to research her fascinating, complex new novel, The Weight of Ink.
Book of Curiosities

Ancient Maps Are Mirrors for the Ancient Psyche

The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences, and Marvels for the Eyes, an eleventh-century Arabic geography, is still a wonder.
Victoria wedding

A Natural History of the Wedding Dress

The history of the wedding dress is shorter than the history of weddings, and even shorter still than the history of marriage.
acorn lyme disease connection

Can the Acorn Crop Predict Lyme Disease?

Will cutting fewer forests, where tick hosts and their predators live, help curb Lyme disease? Scientists debate.
Creepy Clown

The Psychology Behind Why Clowns Creep Us Out

For several months in 2016, creepy clowns terrorized America, with sightings of actual clowns in at least 10 different states.
Satellite view of Hurricane Irma.

Hurricanes May be Getting More Severe: Do We Need a Whole New Cateogry to Describe Them?

There’s been a devastating trail of destruction and flooding along the east Atlantic coast in the last few ...
A dog on trial

When Societies Put Animals on Trial

Animal trials were of two kinds: (1) secular suits against individual creatures; and (2) ecclesiastic cases against groups of vermin.
dehydration and climate change

Climate Change is Turning Dehydration into a Deadly Epidemic

A mysterious kidney disease is striking down laborers across the world and climate change is making it worse. Meet the doctors who are trying to stop it.