The Weather Forecast That Saved D-Day
Operation Overlord launched the invasion of German-occupied Europe during WWII. But the right weather, tides, and moonlight were essential for it to work.
Navy Seals: Why the Military Uses Marine Mammals
A beluga whale was suspected to be a spy. It's not as outlandish as it may seem.
Is Plastic Pollution Depriving Us of Oxygen?
Plastic debris is killing the ocean’s “invisible forests,” which produce ten percent of the oxygen we breathe.
The Dangerous Game of Croquet
Many 19th-century observers were disturbed by the way young people took the co-ed sport of croquet as an opportunity to flirt.
Green Birds Aren’t Really Green
Some of the most dazzling coloration you see in birds doesn’t actually exist.
The Lowdown on Municipal Trash Incinerators
Burning household trash in massive incinerators saves landfill space, but it also introduces a host of other waste management issues.
A Feminist Vision of the Musical
Chantal Akerman’s The Eighties proves that a musical set in a mall can be a significant feminist work.
Walt Whitman, America’s Phrenologist
The pseudoscience of phrenology included a notion of body as text that Whitman loved. But the craze of "bumpology" also had a darker side.
Cold Warriors Tanked Big Pharma Regulation
Worried about the high price of prescription drugs, a senator proposed a bill that would have regulated Big Pharma -- back in the 1950s.
How the Plague Reshaped the World
The bacterium that causes the plague emerged relatively recently, as bacterium go. And yet the pandemics it's created have altered the world.