Thirty Years of Atlantic Hurricanes

A history of every Atlantic storm tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 1987.

The Woman Who Helped Change How Hurricanes Are Named

For decades, only female names were used.

Why Are You Not Dead Yet?

Life expectancy doubled in the past 150 years. Here’s why.

100 Years of Hurricanes, Animated

Based on a century's worth of NOAA data.

Ancient History of Lyme Disease in North America Revealed with Bacterial Genomes

It turns out that deforestation and suburbanization – not evolution – are to blame for the tick-borne epidemic.
JFK accompanies a man and woman walking through the wreckage of a tornado.
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How Farmers Convinced Scientists to Take Climate Change Seriously

Rural Americans once led the fight to link extreme weather like Hurricane Harvey and human activity. What changed?

How Women Got Crowded Out of the Computing Revolution

Blame messy history for the gender imbalance bedeviling Silicon Valley.

Think This Solar Eclipse Is Getting a Lot of Hype? You Should Have Seen 1878

The darkness of the eclipse lit up American minds more than a century ago.

White Nationalists Flock to Genetic Ancestry Tests. Some Don't Like What They Find

With the rise of spit-in-a-cup genetic testing, white nationalists are turning to science to "prove" their racial identity.
Store associate on the phone next to boxes of air conditioners.

The Moral History of Air-Conditioning

Cooling the air was once seen as sinful. Maybe the idea wasn’t entirely wrong.

'Atomic Bill' and the Birth of the Bomb

Reconsidering the journalistic ethics of a New York Times reporter who chronicled the Manhattan Project from the inside.

The Eclipse of 1878 Almost Killed the Father of the National Weather Service

Eclipse madness is real.

From Boy Geniuses to Mad Scientists

How Americans got so weird about science.

The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes

Pre-Columbian bodies are once again being used as evidence for extraterrestrial life.

Metaphors and Malignancy in Senator McCain’s Cancer Diagnosis

How does one talk about cancer, something so unpleasant that is almost always linked with death, and where do metaphors come in?

What Good Is Fear?

As we face down the threat of climate change, it’s worth considering how fear of nuclear war has spurred humanity into action.

Weighing the Baby

When did the practice of weighing newborns begin? And why?
Syringe and pills.
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How Sensationalism Compounds the Opioid Crisis

Instead of playing on emotions, we need to destigmatize addiction.

In 1947, A High-Altitude Balloon Crash Landed in Roswell. The Aliens Never Left

Despite its persistence in popular culture, extraterrestrial life owes more to the imagination than reality.

The Cook Who Became a Pariah

New York, 1907. Mary Mallon spreads infection, unaware that her name will one day become synonymous with typhoid.

The Stranger Who Started an Epidemic

A huge expansion of the population of New Orleans created the perfect environment for the spread of yellow fever, and recent immigrants suffered most.

The North Carolina Trucker Who Brought the World to America in a Box

How Malcolm McClean's shipping containers conquered the global economy by land and sea.
Steve Jobs holds an iPhone.

The Secret Origin Story of the iPhone

An exclusive excerpt from "The One Device" about the engineering fight that created the iPhone as you know it.

The Strange Secret History of Operation Goldfinger

In the sixties, the U.S. government ran a secret project to look for gold in the oddest places: seawater, meteorites, plants, even deer antlers.

The Black Politics of Eugenics

For much of the twentieth century, African Americans embraced eugenics as a means of racial improvement.

Edison vs. Scott

The complicated story behind the invention of sound recording.

Designers On Acid: The Tripping Californians Who Paved The Way To Our Touchscreen World

Ever wondered why email, trash cans, Google Docs and desktops look the way they do? The answer lies in 1960s hippie culture.

How a Frog Became the First Mainstream Pregnancy Test

In the 1950s, if a woman wanted to know if she was pregnant, she needed to get her urine injected into a frog.

The Other 100 Days: 5 Decades Before Trump, the New EPA Truly Made America Great Again

Once upon a time, the EPA had a golden age.

Patterns Of Death In The South Still Show The Outlines Of Slavery

Blacks continue to die younger than people in other groups in the Black Belt.