Kat Eschner

 

Kat Eschner is a freelance science and culture journalist based in Toronto.

Lash Lure: pretty packaging, but bad news for makeup wearers.

Three Horrifying Pre-FDA Cosmetics

From mercury-loaded face cream to mascara that left you blind

Artists like Van Gogh took full advantage of the new blue pigments invented in the 18th and 19th centuries, which some art scholars say revolutionized painting.

Creating a Full Palette of Blues

How the discovery of a new metal helped to change painting forever

President John F. Kennedy sits in the Oval Office with West Berlin's Mayor Willy Brandt in 1961. The Berlin Wall would be erected only a few months later.

Where the Myth of JFK's 'Jelly Donut' Mistake Came From

The misinterpretation didn't arise until years after his death

Wearing white with a white headscarf to St. John's Eve is an important part of the celebration.

Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau Created New Orleans’ Midsummer Festival

Mardi Gras may be the city's biggest party, but St. John's Eve is its most important religious festival

The Flamingo's 'Champagne Tower' was one of the first big pieces of neon on the Strip, seen in films like 'Viva Las Vegas.' It was installed in 1953 and removed in 1967.

The Stylish Flamingo Hotel Shaped the Las Vegas Strip

The Flamingo, still operating today, is the oldest hotel on the Strip

Bob Fosse was a mean dancer himself–here he is playing the snake in 1974's "The Little Prince."

Choreographer Bob Fosse Is the Forgotten Author of Modern Musicals

Fosse's signature style influenced everything from Michael Jackson to today's musicals

Small but mighty!

The Little Brown Bat’s Mighty Talent

Accounting for body size, the little brown bat lives longest of any mammal–but no one knows why

A painting depicting a tribute giraffe and a handler sent to China in the 15th century.

The Peculiar Story of Giraffes in 1400s China

During China's short-lived golden age of exploration, two giraffes came to the imperial court

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna shot her own mirror selfie in 1913. The picture,taken five years before she was killed, shows a young woman of 13 looking herself in the eye, stabilizing the camera on a chair in front of a mirror.

Take a Peep at This Gallery of Historic Selfies

People have been photographing themselves almost since the dawn of the technology

The house where somebody murdered Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother in 1892. She was acquitted almost a year later.

Lizzie Borden Didn’t Kill Her Parents (Maybe)

Borden was acquitted of the crime on this day in 1893, but no one else was ever charged

Cheers!

Nobody Is Sure Why they Call It a ‘Martini’

Tastes just as good, though

A family practicing the art of sauntering on a Sunday in 1942 in Greenbelt, Maryland.

On World Sauntering Day, Take a Walk

It's good for you

Jerrie Cobb stands before a Project Mercury space capsule in heels and gloves. What you can't see: inside the capsule, a male mannequin lies in the place where an astronaut eventually would. The FLATs were never seriously considered for astronaut positions.

Meet the Rogue Women Astronauts of the 1960s Who Never Flew

But they passed the same tests the male astronauts did—and, yes, in high heels

Research shows: dads are important, and so is understanding their role in kids' lives.

Three New Things Science Says About Dads

Fathers can have a significant effect on their children

A statue "is the most efficient and courteous way yet discovered of ensuring a lasting oblivion of the deceased," Joyce said in 1907. Hardly the words of someone who wanted to be remembered long after his death.

Happy Bloomsday! Too Bad James Joyce Would Have Hated This

Joyce infamously disliked the idea of being memorialized

Although scientific discoveries about blood started happening in the seventeeth century, blood transfusions are (mostly) a twentieth-century thing.

350 Years Ago, A Doctor Performed the First Human Blood Transfusion. A Sheep Was Involved

Early scientists thought that the perceived qualities of an animal—a lamb’s purity, for instance—could be transmitted to humans in blood form

One concern about wind turbines is that they are noisy, but the Department of Energy notes that at a distance of 750 feet, they make about as much noise as a household fridge.

Two Myths and One Truth About Wind Turbines

From the cost of turbines to one U.S. senator's suggestion that "wind is a finite resource"

The American Lobster, 'Homarus americanus,' found on the northern area of the Atlantic coast of America.

Climate Change, and Cod, Are Causing One Heck of a Lobster Boom in Maine

The complex relationships between humans, lobster, and cod are creating boom times--for now

Thank Andrey Markov for your smartphone's predictive text feature—and also somewhat sillier uses.

Three Very Modern Uses For A Nineteenth-Century Text Generator

Andrey Markov was trying to understand poems with math when he created a whole new field of probability studies

In the war years, Greyhounds were crowded with travelers, leading planners to look at a new technology: helicopters.

In a Fit of 1940s Optimism, Greyhound Proposed a Fleet of Helicopter Buses

"Greyhound Skyways" would have turned major cities into bustling helicopter hubs

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