The astrolabe was a revolutionary tool for calculating celestial positions and local time. The device's design dates back to Islamic antiquity.

As the climate changes, snowfall in many areas has decreased. As natural snow is replaced with artificial snow, what is the environmental impact?

James Hinds was assassinated for his beliefs, and today is largely forgotten. He stood up for African-American civil rights during the Reconstruction, provoking the KKK's ire.

Over the centuries, the idea of vocation has evolved to such a degree that it now encompasses any occupation which satisfies a personal calling.

In eighteenth-century New England, funeral attendees went home with funeral tokens–usually a pair of gloves or a ring that declared their sorrow.

The grainy pictures speak for themselves. Or so thought many Americans who watched the video of the March 3rd, 1991, beating of motorist Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

In the rural Indian province of Bihar, Husk Power Systems is converting leftover rice husks into biofuel. Now they're building mini-power plants around the country, and expanding into Tanzania.

Russian serfdom and American slavery ended within two years of each other; the defenders of these systems of bondage surprisingly shared many of the same arguments.

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In the early years of food stamps the goal wasn't necessarily to feed America's poor. The idea was to buttress the price of food after the decline in crop prices had created a crisis in rural America.