Science

Emerging science is putting the lie to American meritocracy.

From the 1930s to the 1950s a radical surgery — the lobotomy — would forever change our understanding and treatment of the mentally ill.

When the war was over, the developed world had little doubt that a nation’s future standing in the world was predicated on access to oil.

The story of water in the West, climate change, and the birth of modern environmentalism lies at the bottom of Lake Powell.

Clouds and conspiracies.

At his peak, newspapers loved to tease the inventor. They also feared him.

You must always caulk the wagon. Never ford the river.

How antebellum women prevented themselves from getting pregnant during an era when their identity was founded on being a mother.

Nostalgia and technological innovation paved the way for the rise of model-train giant Lionel.

The hosts discuss the transformation of milk from a dangerous, marginalized 19th Century dairy product, to a 20th Century superfood.

Charlotte Biltekoff talks about the rise of calories at the turn of the 20th century and the push to get scientific nutritional ideas into American mainstream.

Today, we tend to assume dieting is for women, but in the 1860s, it was a masculine pursuit.

Decades after Dr. Jonas Salk opposed patenting the polio vaccine, the pharmaceutical industry has changed.

As the stigma of being transgender begins to ease, medicine is starting to catch up

Cholera maps chart the movement of the disease, and the terror that accompanied it.

A new book outlines an epidemic of over-diagnosis and addiction.

Stories of the places, the people, and the organizations that battled the American influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.

When an event promises you will "hear the body broadcast its sounds," "see without light," and "see dancers float on air,” there’s bound to be disappointment.

Six years ago, the world’s biggest library decided to archive every single tweet. Turns out that’s pretty hard to do.

In the age of Trump, Madison Grant's influential work of scientific racism takes on a new salience.

The genealogy of a killing machine.

You’re not 28 percent Finnish, either.

A recent paper provides evidence that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study reduced the life expectancy of African-American men.

How feminists transformed Valium from a wonder drug to a symbol of medical sexism.

Smog first came to Los Angeles suddenly, like a stranded hitchhiker. It was July 8th, 1943, and we were at war.

Before the word processor, perfect copy was the domain of the typist—not the literary genius.

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

A brief history of self-induced abortion.

French theorists said that American native species were inferior to European ones—the former President went to great lengths to show that they were wrong.