A couple gazes over the Nile River on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

Valentine’s Day in Egypt

In recent decades, celebrations of Valentine’s Day have become common in Egypt. But, as anthropologist Aymon Kreil found, opinions on the holiday are mixed.
Vintage American History print of President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln shaking hands

Praising Washington in Lincoln’s Day

At the time of the Civil War, many Americans revered the nation’s Founding Fathers, and both supporters and opponents of slavery recruited them to their sides.
Meeting of 'Big Five' (US, UK, France, China and the USSR), part of the delegates of fifty nations agreeing upon the Charter of the United Nations and the Statute of the New International Court of Justice, San Francisco, California, May 29, 1945

Origins of the UN: The US and USSR

The genesis of the United Nations came from the nations united as Allies against the Axis powers, but who really pushed the institution into being?
Cast of left hind foot of Deinonychus antirrhopus

The Origins of the “Dinosaur Renaissance”

John Ostrom’s ideas were part of the so-called Dinosaur Renaissance, a paradigm shift that posited dinosaurs as the warm-blooded ancestors of birds.
Mavis Gallant

Remembering Mavis Gallant

Shaped by her Canadian origins and early work as a journalist, expatriate Gallant used the short story to examine the sociopolitics of post-war Europe.
Edgar Allan Poe

The Post-Millennial Poe, or, Edgar Allan Holmes?

In life, Edgar Allan Poe was best known as a literary critic. Today, he’s best remembered for his disquieting tales...but that may be changing.
Illustration of Skylab with deployed parasol, ca. 1973

Skylab, Sealab, and the Psychology of the Extreme

During the Cold War, small groups of Americans lived together in space and at the bottom of the sea, offering psychologists a unique study opportunity.
A lump of peat used to make whiskey

Why Peat Is a Key Ingredient in Whisky and the Climate Crisis

Approximately 80 percent of Scotch whisky is made using peat as a fuel source for drying barley during the malting process. Is that a problem?
Leslie F. Stone

Pulp Woman: Leslie F. Stone

Cloaked in an ambiguous pseudonym, Stone was one of the first women to write science fiction for the pulps.
A photograph of Peter Kropotkin by Nadar

Peter Kropotkin, the Prince of Mutual Aid

Let’s take a closer look at the Russian aristocrat turned anarchist who (literally) wrote the book on mutual aid.