“When you’re shining a light on something, almost everything else remains in the dark. And sometimes that darkness is deliberately kept dark.”
Peter Galison and Robert Proctor | Nov 9, 2021
During WWI the act of hearing was recast as a tactical activity — one that could determine human and even national survival.
Gascia Ouzounian | Jul 26, 2021
To measure was to apprehend and be made accountable, and nowhere was this more resonant than in the identification and classification of criminals.
Jessica Helfand | May 5, 2021
From the ancient Greeks to the 17th century, a terrestrial phenomenon baffled scientists: Where did the birds go in winter?
Alice Gorman | Dec 1, 2020
Controlling pollutions through disinfection, rather than preventing them outright, marked a critical feature of the chemical revolution that crested in the 1770s.
François Jarrige and Thomas Le Roux | Nov 20, 2020
Only after new methods emerged for assessing statistics did the previously invisible entity now called ‘population’ become a target for objective investigation.
Thomas Moynihan | Nov 2, 2020
When space entered the realm of scientific inquiry, many wondered if the eternal mystique of the Moon could survive the onslaught of cold, hard science.
Alice Gorman | Sep 29, 2020
The diaphragm and cervical cap have been used to signify extramarital sex, working-class status, embarrassment, sorrow, and the onset of adulthood — but rarely a joyful or pleasant sexual encounter.
Donna J. Drucker | May 14, 2020
The authors of "Sulphuric Utopias" chart the history of ideas about fumigation and quarantine, and shed light on the origins of epidemic photography.
The Editors | Apr 2, 2020
When the French government announced a remarkable new invention by painter Louis Daguerre, American inventor Samuel Morse sensed its commercial potential, sending his imagination wild.
Sarah Kate Gillespie | Mar 16, 2020
