Two Seventh-Century People Found With West African Ancestry
A story of diversity and integration in early Anglo-Saxon society.
The Bee Dance Debate
Can insects communicate? In the middle of the twentieth century, scientists disagreed on whether bees could possess a “language” expressed through motion.
What Was Behind Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal?
Swift’s savage animosity towards the Irish Protestant elites is front and center in his biting (perhaps literally) critique of the landlord class.
The Politics of Our AI Overlords
Fears of AI often focus on domination by algorithm-powered capitalism, but science fiction once used societies ruled by computers as analogs for communism.
The Surprising Imperial History of the Pekingese Dog
Upper-class British women in the early 1900s participated in a craze for Pekingese dogs, signalling the role of empire in their social identities.
Green Sickness, the Disease of Virgins
In the mid-seventeenth century, John Graunt, the “father of English statistics,” claimed dozens of young women in London died of green sickness every year.
Arthur C. Clarke’s Scuba Adventures and Ocean Frontiers
Clarke’s interest in oceanic exploration in the 1950s was, like his undersea fiction, often neglected by an audience focused on the race for outer space.
“Declaration of Sentiments”: Annotated
The document that came out of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention extended the long-lived and hard-fought movement for women’s rights in the United States.
Assimilation and National Identity in the Classroom
How do we recognize and celebrate diversity and cultural belonging in the classroom?
A Massive Eruption 74,000 Years Ago Affected the Whole Planet
Archaeologists use volcanic glass to figure out how people survived.