The Past
All Stories
How the Space Shuttle program nearly ended in disaster
NASA was dangerously cavalier about the dangers of the shuttle launches.
How has a nuclear weapon never accidentally detonated?
We've been somewhat lucky in the past...
Marcus Aurelius’ son was a murderous psychopath. Is Stoicism to blame?
Commodus lived the anti-Stoic life, pursuing lust, narcissism, and self-indulgence.
The world heritage sites that were (or will be) swallowed by the sea
Some artifacts drown in shipwrecks, others are taken by the tide. Many others will vanish as a result of climate change and rising sea levels.
Cave paintings reveal what extinct animals may have looked like
Rock art in northern Australia depicts marsupial lions, giant kangaroos, and other megafauna that populated the Land Down Under long ago.
The oldest relative of living animals is a jellyfish
The 557-million-year-old specimen challenges the theory that animal body plans were laid out in the Cambrian explosion.
Meet Qikiqtania, a fossil fish who stayed in the water while others ventured onto land
Human beings are descendants of these early tetrapods – at least those who made a new life on land.
A brief history of Esperanto, the 135-year-old language hated by Hitler and Stalin
Can a shared language promote peace? Some people think so.
The unexpected evolutionary benefits of celibacy
While becoming a monk is an evolutionary dead end for the individual, celibacy reaps benefits for the group as a whole.
The largest accidental explosion of all-time
More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
A brief history of the s’more, America’s favorite campfire snack
In a nod to its addictive qualities, it was first dubbed “Some More.”
The forgotten voyagers of ancient Greece, China, and Scandinavia
Long before Christopher and Magellan, ancient explorers voyaged into the unknown and brought home extraordinary tales.
Did war help societies become bigger and more complex?
Using data collected from ancient civilizations across the world, researchers identified the most significant factors in human development. War came out on top.
San José: Human greed keeps the “holy grail” of shipwrecks on the ocean floor
More than 300 years ago, a Spanish ship laden with unspeakable treasure sank after a battle. Because of greed, the treasure remains on the sea floor.
Not just T. rex: Why do giant dinosaurs have tiny arms?
Predatory dinosaurs with big skulls tend to have tiny arms. Researchers propose there might be a direct link between those traits.
How did history’s geniuses make their money?
When you're a genius, how do you make ends meet?
The high life: Doing drugs with ancient Greeks and Romans
Long before tobacco arrived from the Americas, ancient civilizations in the Old World were getting high off hemp smoke and opium.
How a cold climate ushered in the reign of the dinosaurs
New research finds that dinosaurs were already adapted to living in cold climates before the end-Triassic mass extinction. But how?
New dating method shatters our understanding of human evolution
Fossils of Australopithecus in a South African cave are one million years older than previously thought. This challenges the consensus that humans first evolved in East Africa.
The witches were men: A historian explains magic in early modern Russia
Three out of four Russians accused of witchcraft were men.
Laser scans reveal ancient cities hidden in the Amazon river basin
The architecture and infrastructure found may well have required the greatest amount of skilled labor of any construction from the same time period in the entire continent.
Why did people start eating Egyptian mummies?
The weird and wild ways mummy fever swept through Europe.
Is the lost tomb of Genghis Khan hiding in plain sight?
Unlike other world rulers, Genghis Khan was laid to rest not inside an elaborate mausoleum but an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia. Maybe.
How medieval Arabs invented grenades to drop on Crusaders
Before gunpowder was introduced to the West, medieval Arabs devised grenades using crockery.
Let there be God: How Yahweh became “God Almighty”
In the Canaan religion, Yahweh was a lesser god, who was assigned the land of Israel. Here's how he became "God Almighty."
Ancient Maya installed gemstones in their teeth. It wasn’t just fashion.
The ancient Maya enjoyed filling their teeth with gemstones. A new study reveals how the procedure was done and how it didn't kill them.
How “gate” became the syllable of scandal
In terms of sheer productivity, “-gate” has no peer. Wikipedia’s list of -gates has over 260 entries.
Like birds and mammals, most dinosaurs were warm-blooded
The long-standing debate over whether dinosaurs were more like birds or lizards is drawing to a close.
Mechanical Turk: An elaborate 18th-century hoax that played chess like an AI robot
An elaborate device called the Mechanical Turk defeated Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte at chess. Edgar Allan Poe revealed the hoax.