The sun in an orange sky

How Do Scientists Define a Heat Wave?

It seems that every summer brings record temperatures. But there's more to a heat wave than daytime highs.
Copepod

The Little Plankton That Could

Arguably the world's most abundant animal, calanoid copepods can leap like whoa Nelly. And check out their enigmatic embryos!
Studio photograph of Floating gloved hand holding purse on pink background.

Shoplifting, for Fun and Profit

"Hoisting" at the professional level could bring a sense of pride, along with the relief of avoiding grueling domestic work.
Maurice Papon, 1958

The “Stone Face” of Racism

On October 17, 1961, Parisian police attacked a group of Algerians. The event would be lost to French history until a Nazi collaborator was exposed.
Bobolink

Restoring Native Grasslands to Help Birds

Grassland birds, such as the prairie chicken, plover, and bobolink, need a complex environment of varying structure, area, and grass types.
Baptism of Lydia by Marie Ellenrieder, 1861

Women’s Search for Women Leaders in the Early Church

Some nineteenth-century women writers argued that the first Christians included women who were close to Paul—and maybe apostles themselves.
1885-86 Cuban Giants

Integrating Baseball, before Jackie Robinson

Black players were banned from Major League Baseball during the Jim Crow era. Other players walked the color line—gently.
Psilocybe Cubensis

The Nice Married Couple Who Inspired People to ’Shroom

In the 1950s, Gordon and Valentina Wasson encountered magic mushrooms. Then they wouldn't stop talking about them.
Photograph: Miss Beryl Goode, the well-known golfer, at her wedding to Mr W. J. G. Purnell, July 1913. 

Source: Getty

When Statutory Rape Laws Led to Forced Marriages

In early 20th-century New York, men accused of "ruining" women under eighteen could avoid prosecution by marrying them.
Closeup of the edge of open book pages

The Theory Journal: Still Trendy after All These Years?

A wave of academic periodicals devoted to theory started appearing in the 1970s. Criticism wasn't far behind.