Popular Science—but Make It North Korean
In the 1950s, science in North Korea was presented in a way that fired children’s imaginations and encouraged youth to develop ideas that served the state.
The Science of Sourdough: How Citizens Are Helping Shape the Future of Fermented Foods
Citizen scientists are drawing on personal experience to help researchers create new plant-based fermented foods and maximize their health benefits.
Turning Orwell into Propaganda
Many read the novels of George Orwell as pro-capitalist/anti-socialist propaganda, but his work has become a resource for all kinds of political arguments.
Performing Forensics: Doctors Becoming Expert Witnesses
Doctors in skeptical Scotland had to persuade the courts to listen to them, in part because of the historical animosity between the professions of law and medicine.
Your Best Friend’s Mom
Parents, teachers, and family income affect educational and life outcomes for teenagers, but so does their best friend’s mother.
Disinheritance: The Internment of Japanese Canadians
Glenn McPherson, the bureaucrat largely responsible for selling off the property of interned Japanese Canadians during World War II, was also a secret agent.
Leviathan Resurrected: Illustration and Astronomy
In the 1840s, the Leviathan of Parsonstown, built by William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse, became the largest telescope in the world.
10 Sestinas by Modern and Contemporary Poets
The sestina form features the repetition of end words across stanzas. Here are sestinas by Louise Glück, Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Bishop, Patricia Smith, and more.
The Therapeutic Side of Tibetan Buddhism
Along with teachings on liberation from the cycles of death and rebirth, the Tibetan Buddhist tradition contains guidance on removing impediments to compassion.
Building Notre Dame in Beijing
Chinese church architecture progressed from initial setbacks to reflect a two-way transfer of design and building techniques as East met West.