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Essay Exploring London’s past through mudlarking
May 24, 2022
For millennia, objects have found their way into the River Thames as it flows through London. Household rubbish has been dumped into it, personal possessions accidentally lost, cargoes spilt, offerings made to gods, and coins tossed in for luck.
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Interview Hal Weitzman on What’s the Matter with Delaware?
May 24, 2022
The legal home to over a million companies, Delaware has more registered businesses than residents. Why do virtually all of the biggest corporations in the United States register there? Why do so many small companies choose to set up in Delaware rather than their home states?
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Essay Aristotle on how to write a story
May 18, 2022
Back when I was a first-year college student and thought I knew everything already, I remember my English composition professor telling us that Aristotle’s Poetics contained everything we needed to know about becoming great writers.
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Essay Feathered friends
May 16, 2022
When we watch a big flock of starlings or shorebirds performing their swirling pre-roost aerobatics, the expression ‘safety in numbers’ might come to mind. In the air, moving together, each individual bird reduces its chances of being a target if a predator comes along.
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Essay A guide to beachcombing
May 12, 2022
Everything that the sea casts up onto the shore has a story to tell. Some objects give us glimpses into the lives of marine creatures living nearby, others speak of long-distance voyages and a life on the ocean waves, or tell us about our own lives and careless habits.
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Interview Eric R. Eaton on Insectpedia
May 12, 2022
Insectpedia is a beautifully illustrated, pocket-friendly encyclopedia that dispels many common myths about insects while offering new perspectives on the vital relationships we share with these incredible creatures.
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Interview Bénédicte Savoy on Africa’s Struggle for its Art
May 09, 2022
For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history.
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Interview Marcia Bjornerud on Geopedia
May 07, 2022
Geopedia is a trove of geologic wonders and the evocative terms that humans have devised to describe them. Featuring dozens of entries—from Acasta gneiss to Zircon—this illustrated compendium is brimming with lapidary and lexical insights that will delight rockhounds and word lovers alike.
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Interview Richard J. Light and Allison Jegla on Becoming Great Universities
May 05, 2022
Becoming Great Universities highlights ten core challenges that all colleges and universities face and offers practical steps that everyone on campus—from presidents to first-year undergraduates—can take to enhance student life and learning.
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Essay Beyond The Dragon Daughter and Other Lin Lan Fairy Tales
May 02, 2022
The lack of Chinese fairy tales in English translation has been a reality that hinders not only academic studies of the fairy tale, but also the cross-cultural understanding of Chinese traditions in general.
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Interview Andrei Sourakov and Rachel Warren Chadd on The Lives of Moths
April 29, 2022
While butterflies may get more press than moths, Andrei Sourakov and Rachel Warren Chadd reveal that the lopsided attention is unjust.
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Interview Jeff Deutsch on In Praise of Good Bookstores
April 26, 2022
Do we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch—the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world—pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions.
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Essay The universe from a 3D perspective
April 25, 2022
The universe is huge. If we could travel at the speed of light (and we can’t) it would take us only about a second to go to the Moon.
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Essay Why tech innovation alone isn’t good enough
April 20, 2022
The list of crises we face today seems to grow daily. As if inequality and civil wars and global warming and refugee crises weren't enough, we have also grappled with a global pandemic and the sudden threat of nuclear war.
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Interview R. Douglas Arnold on Fixing Social Security
April 20, 2022
Since its establishment, Social Security has become the financial linchpin of American retirement. Yet demographic trends—longer lifespans and declining birthrates—mean that this popular program now pays more in benefits than it collects in revenue.
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