Sneaky Racism in a Ghost Story
Guy de Maupassant’s spooky story "The Horla" captured French anxieties about race, foreigners, and contagious diseases.
Cyanea Pohaku: The Plant Discovered Right Before Extinction
Cyanea pohaku, the extinction of which can be traced to human interventions in the environment, was gone before we had a chance to really study it.
Freddy Krueger, Folkloric Monster
Many aspects of Freddy Krueger's backstory and actions in A Nightmare on Elm Street echo portrayals of the folkloric bogeyman who targets children.
To Find a New World, Watch How a Planet Dances with Its Star
Finding a tiny planet around bright stars dozens or hundreds of light-years from Earth is extremely difficult.
Sex and the Single Witch
On witch-hunting and the pursuit of sexual knowledge in early-modern England.
Why #StarringJohnCho Is Not Enough for Asian American Cinema
Filling more movie roles with Asian American actors may be the wrong goal if such visibility promotes stereotypes or buys into Hollywood's fantasies of power.
The Riches of Poverty Point
Earthworks built around 3,700 years ago in Louisiana centered an exchange system that stretched up the Mississippi and into the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys.
The Radical Street Sellers of London
Many considered street vendors dangerous, not just for their general skirting of the law but because they comprised an outspoken political force.
