Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc, for Fascists and Feminists

As Catholics mark the centennial of her canonization, it’s clear that there is more than one Joan of Arc. How did that happen?
T helper cells and interleukin molecules

Cytokine Storms: The Cruel Irony of an Immune Response

When bodies fight back against infection, they can overwhelm themselves with their own destructive force.
Capsicum annum peppers

Some Like Them Hot!

The long, wonderful history of the chili pepper.
A male doctor sitting down and looking pensive

How Doctors Make End-of-Life Choices

Many people facing the end of their life receive treatments that ultimately have no benefit. A team of researchers set out to find out why.
A few BabySitters Club Books

Do Series Books Turn Kids Off Adult-Approved Novels?

Goosebumps. The Baby-Sitters Club. Even Nancy Drew. In the 1990s, concerned educators wondered if series books were luring kids away from "literature."
Louis XIV, King of France by Hyacinthe Rigaud

Doctors Have Always Been Against High-Heeled Shoes

Every generation of medical professionals has issued the same warnings about high heels. For hundreds of years.
A graduate nurse and student nurses in isolation uniforms, early 1900s

Nurses Have Always Been Heroes

Nothing drives that home more than this amazing photo collection from the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing.
Men prepare bacon at a meat packing plant in Chicago, circa 1955

Why Does Meatpacking Have Such Bad Working Conditions?

In the long time between The Jungle and today, meatpacking has changed—first for the better, due to strong unions, then for the worse.
A series of torn up academic papers against a blue background

Preprints, Science, and the News Cycle

Preprints are academic papers that haven't been peer-reviewed yet. When preprints make news, that's often overlooked.
UK research organisation Mass-Observation conducts a survey at the Nuffield Centre, a Service Club in Soho, to find out the preferred 'pin-up girl' of a number of servicemen, September 1944.

Yes, Mass Observation Still Wants to Know about Your Life

The organization has collected interviews and diaries recording ordinary life in Britain over the course of decades. A pandemic won't stop it now.