The wars that inspired Game of Thrones | Alex Gendler
Beginning around 1377, medieval England was shaken by a power struggle between two noble families, which spanned generations and involved a massive cast of characters, complex motives and shifting loy...
15 Feb 20195min
The science of spiciness | Rose Eveleth
When you take a bite of a hot pepper, your body reacts as if your mouth is on fire -- because that's essentially what you've told your brain! Rose Eveleth details the science and history behind spicy ...
15 Feb 20193min
How Thor got his hammer | Scott A. Mellor
Loki the mischief-maker, writhes in Thor's iron grip. The previous night, he'd snuck up on Thor's wife and shorn off her beautiful hair. To fix what he'd done, Loki rushes to the dwarves and tricks th...
7 Jan 20194min
The history of the world according to cats | Eva-Maria Geigl
In ancient times, wildcats were fierce carnivorous hunters. And unlike dogs, who have undergone centuries of selective breeding, modern cats are genetically very similar to ancient cats. How did these...
3 Jan 20194min
Are we running out of clean water? | Balsher Singh Sidhu
Despite water covering 71% of the planet's surface, more than half the world's population endures extreme water scarcity for at least one month a year. Current estimates predict that by 2040, up to 20...
6 Dec 20184min
Why should you read Kurt Vonnegut? | Mia Nacamulli
Kurt Vonnegut found the tidy, satisfying arcs of many stories at odds with reality, and he set out to explore the ambiguity between good and bad fortune in his own novels. He tried to make sense of hu...
29 Nov 20185min
Does time exist? | Andrew Zimmerman Jones
The earliest time measurements were observations of cycles of the natural world, using patterns of changes from day to night and season to season to build calendars. More precise time-keeping eventual...
23 Okt 20185min
How do cigarettes affect the body? | Krishna Sudhir
Cigarettes aren't good for us. That's hardly news -- we've known about the dangers of smoking for decades. But how exactly do cigarettes harm us, and can our bodies recover if we stop? Krishna Sudhir ...
13 Sep 20185min
