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This advertisement from San Francisco-based electronic cigarette company JUUL calls back the tobacco advertisements from the mid-20th century.

Ads for E-Cigarettes Today Hearken Back to the Banned Tricks of Big Tobacco

A new ‘Joe Camel’-esque phenomenon may be igniting as the new fad takes a 21st-century page out of an old playbook

While looters discard bones, they are invaluable to archaeologists’ research.

As Mongolia Melts, Looters Close In On Priceless Artifacts

Climate change and desperation are putting the country’s unique history at risk

An illustration from the 1820 edition of The Governess, a popular work of children's literature written by Sarah Fielding.

Women Who Shaped History

The First Novel for Children Taught Girls the Power of Reading

Nearly three centuries before heroines like Katniss and Meg Murray, Sarah Fielding published a book on the values of female education

A flock of beluga whales in the Sea of Japan, off the coast of Russia.

New Research

How Culture Guides Belugas’ Annual Odysseys Across the Arctic

Strong, multi-generational ties help the cetaceans make the same migrations year after year

The story of Laika (above, in a postage stamp from the Emirate of Ajman, now part of the UAE) lives on today in websites, YouTube videos, poems, and children’s books, at least one of which provides a happy ending for the doomed dog.

The Sad, Sad Story of Laika, the Space Dog, and Her One-Way Trip Into Orbit

A stray Moscow pup traveled into orbit in 1957 with one meal and only a seven-day oxygen supply

What Will the Automated City of the Future Look Like?

Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai are becoming prototype ‘robot cities,’ as governments start to see automation as the key to urban living

To demonstrate Tupperware's patented seal, Brownie Wise tosses a bowl filled with water at a party.

Women Who Shaped History

The Story of Brownie Wise, the Ingenious Marketer Behind the Tupperware Party

Earl Tupper invented the container’s seal, but it was a savvy, convention-defying entrepreneur who got the product line into the homes of housewives

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify Tuesday before a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election.

History of Now

Before Zuckerberg, These Six Corporate Titans Testified Before Congress

The CEO of Facebook has some ignominious company from J.P. Morgan to Kenneth Lay

Djassi Johnson (left) and Kevin Boseman (right) perform the dance choreographed by Johnson.

Exclusive: Watch a Dynamic Reinterpretation of Joan Baez’s “Civil War”

Part of a visual album accompanying the folk icon’s new release, this choreographed performance takes a lyrical look at the American conflict

Junius Brutus Stearns, "Hannah Duston Killing the Indians" (1847). Oil on canvas.

The Gruesome Story of Hannah Duston, Whose Slaying of Indians Made Her an American Folk “Hero”

A century after killing and scalping ten Native Americans, she was memorialized in what might well be the first public statue of a female in America

View of two farmers checking the corpses of dead sheep on a farm ranch near the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

How the Death of 6,000 Sheep Spurred the American Debate on Chemical Weapons

The Dugway sheep incident of March 1968 made visible the military’s covert attempts to test and stockpile millions of dollars worth of chemical weapons

Several views of a fossilized finger bone found Al Wusta site, Saudi Arabia.

New Research

Rare 85,000-year-old Finger Bone Complicates Our Understanding of African Migration

The fossil builds on the theory that humans left Africa in multiple waves, and suggests they made it as far as the Arabian Desert

"Do Ho Suh: Almost Home" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2018

Future of Art

How This Globetrotting Artist Redefines Home and Hearth

An ethereal 3D installation by the Korean-born Do Ho Suh combines places the artist has lived in the past

Anti-cholera inoculation in Calcutta in 1894.

Science Still Bears the Fingerprints of Colonialism

Western science long relied on the knowledge and exploitation of colonized peoples. In many ways, it still does

Lucy gets tossed in with the other accused witches in Salem.

'Timeless' Recapped

Welcome to Salem, Witches: “Timeless” Season 2, Episode 4, Recapped

Rescuing a very important American figure takes just a little tweaking of the historical record

“Tattooed Whale, 2016” by Tim Pitsiulak. Screen-print on Arches Cover Black.

Why Scientists Are Starting to Care About Cultures That Talk to Whales

Arctic people have been communicating with cetaceans for centuries. The rest of the world is finally listening in

Guy Satat, a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab, at the fog machine

This New System Can See Through Fog Far Better Than Humans

Developed by MIT researchers, the technology could be a boon for drivers and driverless cars

Giant Panda cubs developing their tree-climbing skills at China’s Chengdu Panda Base

The Science Behind the Unbearably Cute IMAX Movie “Pandas”

Wild populations of these loveable fuzz-faced bears need help, and scientists are on the case

Musician and actor Nive Nielsen portrays Lady Silence, the most prominent Inuk character in 'The Terror.'

Tales of the Doomed Franklin Expedition Long Ignored the Inuit Side, But “The Terror” Flips the Script

The new AMC television show succeeds in being inclusive of indigenous culture

"Deep Pool That Never Dries" nabbed first prize.

Future of Art

These Contest-Winning ‘Fairy Tales’ Might Be Bleak, But They Are Topical

Blank Space’s fifth-annual competition plays with everything from fake news to gravity

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