The Invention of the “Healthy” Caribbean
Europeans used to believe that "bad air" caused diseases, so they distrusted the Caribbean's air quality and land features like swamps.
How Do We Know That Epic Poems Were Recited from Memory?
Scholars once doubted that pre-literate peoples could ever have composed and recited poems as long as the Odyssey. Milman Parry changed that.
The Undercover Abolitionists of the 18th Century
Since many people considered them an off-putting radical sect, some Quaker abolitionists worked behind the scenes to eradicate slavery.
The Chemist Whose Work Was Stolen from Her
The Black scientist Alice Ball helped develop a treatment for leprosy in the early twentieth century. But someone else took the credit.
Were George Washington’s Teeth Taken from Enslaved People?
We know a surprising amount about the dental history of the nation’s first president.
What Do Pesticides and Chrysanthemums Have in Common?
They both contain insecticides called pyrethrins, used in ancient Persia. Today we use them in lice-killing shampoos.
Democracy, Beauty, and West Side Story
Well-researched stories from The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Are Galls Miracle Cures or Just Weird Growths on Plants?
For millennia, humans have exploited galls for medicine, fuel, food, tanning, and dyeing. Some people have considered them miraculous.
How Judi Bari Tried to Unite Loggers and Environmentalists
The radical environmentalist had a background in labor organizing and wanted to end the misogyny of the movement and the logging industry alike.
How Spirit Photography Made Heaven Literal
Are the departed watching over us, and if so, what are they wearing? Victorian spiritualists believed that ghosts could be captured on film.