Society And Culture

RSS
baseball
July–August 2008

Battered Expectations

Do baseballs obey the conventional laws of physics?

Ring of Brodgar

Iron Men

An Internet guide to the Iron Age Centic culture

flowering wood sorrel
July-August 2006

The Other Kinsey Report

Alfred C. Kinsey's scientific interests went well beyond sex.

The highest French court tried a cow in 1546. On the assumption that animals possessed a moral sense, capital punishment was the verdict.
October 1950

Beasts Before the Bar

Quaint court scenes of yesteryear show that ignorance of the law was once no excuse even for an animal.

three singing mice
February 1937

The Indoor Explorer

Three Singing Mice

To Kill a Cormorant

Are double-crested cormorants overrunning their niche—or recovering from centuries of suppression?

bonobos exhibit "play face"

Bodies in Sync

Contagious laughter, yawns, and moods offer insight into empathy’s origins.

Picadilly Museum
January–February 1921

Glimpses of Early Museums

The genesis of the habitat group

verandaHE VERANDA AT HIGH TIDE: The houses are built upon high piles, and at low tide stand some ten to twelve feet above water level. But at high tide, the lagoon deepens and the veranda becomes a convenient land platform for the canoes which are the only means of transportation in this water Venice.
January-February 1931

Living With the Natives of Melanesia

How Ethnological Work Is Carried on by Representatives of the American Museum among Primitive People of the South Seas

April 1917

Individuality, Temperament, and Genius in Animals

Research that lets us appreciate human individuality

Recent Stories

The way they live, the food they eat, and the effect on us

A true but unlikely tale

Story and Photographs by William Rowan

Increasing day length on the early Earth boosted oxygen released by photosynthetic cyanobacteria.

Genomic evidence shows that Denisovans and modern humans may have overlapped in Wallacea.