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History

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The Neverending Hunt for Utopia

Through centuries of human suffering, one vision has sustained: a belief in a terrestrial arcadia

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The Robot Hall of Fame: Vote Rosey 2012

For the first time, Carnegie Mellon University’s Robot Hall of Fame is allowing the public to vote on which robots will be inducted

The Smoothest Con Man That Ever Lived

“Count” Victor Lustig once sold the Eiffel Tower to an unsuspecting scrap-metal dealer. Then he started thinking really big

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World War I: 100 Years Later

Document Deep Dive: What Did the Zimmermann Telegram Say?

See how British cryptologists cracked the coded message that propelled the United States into World War I

Hugo Gernsback’s 1922 proposal for a monument to Alexander Graham Bell

Crowdfunding a Museum for Alexander Graham Bell in 1922

Long before the age of Kickstarter, Hugo Gernsback used his magazine to garner interest for a monument devoted to the inventor of the telephone

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Yesterday’s Tomorrows: How a Smithsonian Exhibit I Never Saw Changed My Life

Meet the historians who pioneered scholarship of retro-futurism

Starfish Prime 0 to 15 seconds after detonation, photographed from Maui Station, July 9, 1962.

Going Nuclear Over the Pacific

A half-century ago, a U.S. military test lit up the skies and upped the ante with the Soviets

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How Would You Rank the Greatest Presidents?

In a new book, political junkie Robert W. Merry shares his three-part test

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The Demonization of Empress Wu

“She killed her sister, butchered her elder brothers, murdered the ruler, poisoned her mother,” the chronicles say. But is the empress unfairly maligned?

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Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?

In the 21st century, everyone will be smarter—even animals.

In 1916, a great white shark attacked five people near the Jersey Shore.

The Shark Attacks That Were the Inspiration for Jaws

One rogue shark. Five victims. A mysterious threat. And the era of the killer great white was born

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How Advertisers Convinced Americans They Smelled Bad

A schoolgirl and a former traveling Bible salesman helped turn deodorants and antiperspirants from niche toiletries into an $18 billion industry

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The Conversation: Steve Jobs’ Greatest Contribution

As we near the first anniversary of the visionary’s death, we ask you one simple question

Cover of the September 1919 issue of Popular Science Monthly

Hello Mars — This is the Earth!

In 1919, Popular Science magazine imagined how Earthlings might communicate with Mars

Fanny Blanker-Koen crosses the finish line to become the first triple champion of the 14th Olympic Games.

The Paris Olympics

How Fanny Blankers-Koen Became the ‘Flying Housewife’ of the 1948 London Games

Voted female athlete of the 20th century, the runner won four gold medals while pregnant with her third child

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Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: A Peek at the 1948 Games in London

Records at the National Archives in London show how organizers cobbled together the 1948 “Austerity” Games

Cover of the April 30, 1954 issue of Collier’s

Wernher von Braun’s Martian Chronicles

In 1954, a special issue of Collier’s magazine envisioned a ten-ship flotilla to the red planet.

The 1987 L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future time capsule placed in a bank vault

Worldwide Economic Collapse: Orson Scott Card’s Predictions for 2012

The author of Ender’s Game envisioned the imminent end of American power

A basilisk–a lethally poisonous monster hatched from a cock’s egg–illustrated in a mediaeval bestiary. Note the weasel gnawing at its breast; only they were impervious to basilisk venom.

On the Trail of the Warsaw Basilisk

Illustration in Science and Invention magazine, explaining the special effects for Metropolis (1927)

1927 Magazine Looks at Metropolis, “A Movie Based On Science”

How filmmakers created a gorgeous, dystopian future

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