History

Ant talk; vegetation on Mars

The centennial of the discovery of brain waves in humans exposes a chilling tale involving Nazis, war between Russia and Ukraine, suicide and the vicissitudes of history

The J particle; a nitroglycerin engine

This is a science adventure story. Take a wild journey down the Colorado River in the company of two pioneering botanists: Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter.

A finger-sized clay cylinder from a tomb in northern Syria appears to be the oldest example of writing using an alphabet rather than hieroglyphs or cuneiform

Social psychologists could turn artificial-intelligence-powered tools like ChatGPT on to writings from past cultures. Will this help us study ancient civilizations?

This Black physicist’s work on the Manhattan Project inspired a County in Florida two generations after her death

Alcohol in space; basking in the limelight

Visual artist Anna Von Mertens looks to astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt and her vision of the universe for inspiration

Violins, the ink on the Declaration of Independence and other ways that insects shaped human history

The Martian new year arrives with the Red Planet’s vernal equinox. Explaining why requires a deep dive into celestial mechanics and Earth’s calendrical history

In medieval times, astrology was considered a serious science, a branch of astronomy. Curator Larisa Grollemond of the Getty Museum, walks us through the medieval zodiac and how someone’s sign decided their day-to-day life.