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Articles

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Would You Like Arches With That? When Famous Architects Design McDonalds

Franchises of the fast food behemoth become roadside art

Paleontologists have previously found a bounty of dinosaur fossils in the Hell Creek formation, including Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Find a Dinosaur In Your Backyard? It’s All Yours

If you find a dinosaur fossil on private land, it’s yours to do with as you please

Portrait of Jane Austen, from the memoir by J. E. Austen-Leigh.

Men Wore Corsets and 7 Other Unknown Things About the World of Jane Austen

Exploring the life and times of the beloved English novelist

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Your Guide to Tasting the Many Species of Pacific Salmon

From dogs to humpies to kings, the author tastes and discusses the five main species of Pacific salmon

The first bog body ever photographed, which was discovered in Denmark in 1898.

Celebrate 262 Years of Bog Bodies on International Bog Day

Thanks to their cool, oxygen-poor conditions, bogs are a hostile environment for microbes—and a great environment for inadvertently embalming bodies

Babies Aren’t Afraid of Heights Until They Start Crawling

It’s only around month 9 that babies begin to recoil from the site of a steep staircase or the drop off of a changing table

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Welcome to a Future When We Work Out on Walls

Is a club where you train on walls while sensors track your body’s performance just another fitness trend? Or is it real innovation?

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A Well Preserved, 15-Foot Long Dinosaur Tail Is Being Dug Up in Mexico

The 72 million-year-old tail finding is quite rare, and a hip and other bones have also been found nearby

What’s left of a former residential school in British Columbia

Canada’s Forgotten Experiments on Malnourished Indigenous Kids

During this period in history, the Canadian government strongly promoted a reeducation program of sorts for indigenous children

Alexander Hamilton, painted by John Trumbull, c. 1806

Alexander Hamilton’s Adultery and Apology

Revelations about the treasury secretary’s sex life forced him to choose between candor and his career.

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Last Meal on Earth: What Astronauts Eat on Launch Day

One NASA instructor’s Cubans and empanadas became a Kennedy Space Center tradition

Americans’ Love of Driving Was Fading Even Before the Economy Crashed

This is good news for both the country and the planet, since less driving means less dependence on fossil fuels and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

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Toxic Runoff Yellow and Other Paint Colors Sourced From Polluted Streams

An engineer and an artist at Ohio University team up to create paints made of sludge extracted from streams near abandoned coal mines

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The Golden Arches of McModernism

A brief history of the McDonald’s Golden Arches and the influence of Modernist ideals

Blowing Out Birthday Candles Makes the Cake Taste Better

Rituals draw people in and help them focus on the present moment, which helps them focus on and enjoy the food that follows

Nuclear power produces a great deal of energy–and waste.

Energy Innovation

Is Shale the Answer to America’s Nuclear Waste Woes?

With the plans for a Yucca Mountain waste repository scrapped, scientists suggest that clay-rich rocks could permanently house spent nuclear fuel

Wildfires burning in Alaska

Arctic Forests Are On Fire Now More Than at Any Point in the Past 10,000 Years

The Arctic is burning stronger and more often, but what the future holds is still up in the air

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Sorry, Wolfgang, Fusion Foods Have Been With Us for Centuries

The banh mi, ramen and other foods considered national dishes that actually have cross-cultural beginnings

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Live in the Hudson River

A piece of news that might keep you out of the water: researchers recently found antibiotic resistant bacteria

Blue fluorescence spreads through a dying nematode worm, revealing the passage of death through its body over the hour and a half prior to the organism’s complete expiration.

A Glowing Blue Death Wave Envelops Roundworms Before They Expire

Studying nematodes as life leaves them may lead to insights into exactly how death travels through the body, and, perhaps, whether we can delay it

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