Science

Mifepristone took longer to get approved than most drugs—but not because it was unsafe.

How a top-secret satellite surveillance program accidentally documented climate change.

For more than a century, conservation policy has focused on economic development and wisely using natural resources.

Kennedy wants to create "wellness drug rehabilitation farms." But the U.S. tried it before, and it didn't work.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s nomination to lead HHS reflects the rising power of an anti-vaccination movement more than 100 years in the making.

Abortion exceptions in legal history.

It wouldn’t take much, the fan explained, just some radioactive material inside the players, who would then undergo a physical examination.

The connections between the first president’s commitment to agricultural innovation and his evolving attitudes toward his enslaved laborers at Mount Vernon.

A mid-1960s “do-it-yourself” project produced “credible nuclear weapon” design from open sources.

The Parcae project revolutionized electronic eavesdropping.

In the 1970s, a crop of books purporting to provide a scientific basis for gender inequality met sharp criticism from figures like Gould.

The third president knew that the whims of nature shaped Americans’ daily lives as farmers and enslavers.

Jimmy Carter, skeptical of NASA's shuttle, saved it with funding despite delays and opposition. His Voyager message carries hope deep into space.

In 1973, the Christmas Bird Count formed the basis for a press freedom case that centered on the impacts of DDT.

Agency sought drugs and behavior control techniques to use in “special interrogations” and offensive operations.

The Year 2000 computer problem continues to nag at us 25 years later.

How gang-nail plates led to bigger homes.

Between 40% and 50% of children didn’t live past 5 in the US during the 19th century. Authors documented the common but no less gutting grief of losing a child.

The psychiatric hospitals promoted by Thomas Story Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix were quickly overcrowded and underfunded — a failure that haunts us today.

Introducing “How the System Works,” a series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life.

Susie Orbach’s 1978 book is a fascinating snapshot of diet and physical culture in a very different era.

Critiques of artificial intelligence abound. Where’s the utopian vision for what it could be?

The 1900 Galveston hurricane changed the way we deal with severe weather. But as Hurricane Helene showed, there are still lessons to be learned.

Why did the first director of the UN agency think eugenics held the key to a more evolved, harmonious world?

How politicians used the story of one young patient to neglect the AIDS crisis.

The “Indian peach” survived a genocide—but can it withstand climate change?

During World War II, the revolutionary V-Mail leveraged cutting-edge microfilm technology to streamline correspondence.

The 20th-century movement to fix slouching questions the moral and political dimensions of addressing bad backs over wider public health concerns.

How geology shaped American culture.

On the rise of the narcotic farm model, a radical reimagining of the nation’s approach to addiction.