History of Science

On this blog, in my book The End of War and elsewhere (see Further Reading and Viewing), I have knocked the deep roots theory of war, which holds that war stems from an instinct deeply embedded in the genes of our male ancestors.

When the 2008 Bond film came out with the title Quantum of Solace, science fans may have been hoping for a plot that hinged on quantum physics.

A ghost lives in the Daintree Rainforest in northeastern Queensland, Australia. There, on a single mountain range located 1,100 meters above sea level, scientists have recently found what may be the last few white lemuroid ringtail possums (Hemibelideus lemuroides), a species that was all but wiped out by a heat wave in 2005.

I’m a bit obsessed with Scientific American covers, but my knowledge of the archive during the years before my time on staff is broad rather than deep.

Paper cutting as an art form is almost as old as paper itself. Traditionally, though, paper cuts are 2-dimensional, almost cartoonish depictions of scenes because of the nature of the process: either the paper is there, or it is cut away, leaving the artist with two tones to work with.

The first exhibit of the National September 11 Memorial Museum is a multimedia display entitled, "We Remember". Sixteen speakers surround visitors with a barrage of voices as accompanying text is projected onto a world map: Someone barged in and said, "Oh my God.

Two ships led by Sir John Franklin vanished in 1859 en route to finding and exploring a Northwest passage

Research could founder or flourish if Scotland leaves the U.K., depending on whom you ask

Digital mapping shatters the image of Stonehenge as a desolate site that was visited by few

The Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) is the rarest fish in the world. Found only in a single, tiny limestone cavern in the Devils Hole geothermal pool about 100 km east of Nevada’s Death Valley National Park, these fish have the smallest known geographic range of any vertebrate in the wild.

It only took 23 years but the Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) has finally gained protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The small, aquatic frogs—which only reach about 100 millimeters in length—have been considered candidates for protected status since 1991.

Admit it: haven’t you always longed to experience what it’s like to be a proton at the subatomic scale? No? Just Jen-Luc Piquant then.