Whale shark (Rhincodon typus), Isla Mujeres, Cancun, Mexico

A Whale of a Shark

The largest fish, Rhincodon typus, is obviously not a whale, but it’s also unusual for a shark.
An image of magnetic loops on the sun, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on July 18, 2012.

“Space Tornadoes” Could Cause Geomagnetic Storms

But these phenomena, spun off ejections from the Sun, aren’t easy to study.
King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson on holiday in Yugoslavia, 1936

Topless King in Pedal Canoe!

By exposing his skin on a sunny day, King Edward VIII offered a reminder that a monarch is, after all, nothing but a person.
Charles Darwin

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story

At university and in the field, Darwin trained his scientific thinking as would a geologist, seeking causal explanations for observed natural phenomena.
"The trek of bums, tramps, single transients and undesirable indigents out of Los Angeles County because of police activity." Photographed by Dorothea Lange.

Los Angeles’s War on Tramps

In the 1880s, Los Angeles began a large-scale project of incarcerating unemployed men whom they viewed as a threat to the vigor of white America.
A view of Main Street in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada

Under Moose Jaw: Tourism Or History?

Moose Javians’ confidence and reputation are rooted in a unique, if fanciful, story, developed after the economic downturn of the 1980s and 1990s.
Interior of a restaurant kitchen

A House Divided—Between Front and Back

In many restaurants, front and back of house workers are divided by language and culture in ways that affect the careers of both groups.
A portrait of Frances Brooke beside the cover page for the book The History of Emily Montague

The First Canadian Novel

Often considered the first Canadian novel, The History of Emily Montague revealed its author’s true feelings about colonial Quebec.
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht)

Weimar Operas and Visions of Utopia

Kurt Weill and his musical collaborators used utopian fantasies to explore the social and political conditions of a fading Weimar Republic.
The leg of this purple ochre sea star in Oregon is disintegrating, as it dies from sea star wasting syndrome. Photo by Elizabeth Cerny-Chipman, courtesy of Oregon State University.

The Long Quest to Uncover a Sea Star Killing Bacteria

Scientists say they’ve found the cause of a marine epidemic more than ten years after it started. What took so long?