When you think of religion, you probably think of a god who rewards the good and punishes the wicked. But the idea of morally concerned gods is by no means universal. Social scientists have long known that small-scale traditional societies – the kind missionaries used to dismiss as “pagan” – envisaged a spirit world that cared little about the morality of human behaviour.

Controversial Renaissance Paintings “Art has to be deeply disturbing”, artist Marina Abramovic says while standing in front of Courbet’s

In places like Alaska, the Spanish flu exacted a terrible toll. But while some communities suffered many deaths, others nearby escaped the carnage. How?

The Iron Curtain went to infinity and beyond.

Depictions of plague doctors in the bird mask and floor-length cloak first developed in France during the early 17th century.

Under layers of dirt, pinpricked with animal burrows and shrubs, archeologists found a circle of mammoth bones — evidence of a dwelling built between 25,063 to 24,490 years ago.

It destroyed the trust the people felt for their leaders

The purpose of such an elaborate structure remains a big open question

Take chemistry, add energy, get life. The first tests of Jeremy England’s provocative origin-of-life hypothesis are in, and they appear to show how order can arise from nothing.

First comes denial. Then panic.

We need to strike a new balance between our private pleasures and our collective survival.

The bicycle, as we know it today, was not invented until the late 1800s. Yet it was a simple mechanical invention. It would seem to require no brilliant inventive insight, and certainly no scientific background.

For hundreds of years, enslaved people were bought and sold in America. Today most of the sites of this trade are forgotten. As part of The 1619 Project, we photographed 12 of them.

A humanoid figure dressed as a maid holds a jug in its right hand and, as hidden...

Pandemics have killed millions and toppled empires. They have also brought about social change. Several played roles in the emergence of capitalism.

It could be tried again if the city of Hilo comes under threat, although many object to such airstrikes.

Its history is as political as it is delicious. Dive into the history of this not-so-Thai noodle dish that was born of politics and nationalism almost 80 years ago.

A 2003 rape accusation changed how many saw the Lakers star, but it did not change the trajectory of his career.

How on Earth do you patch the software on a computer orbiting the Moon? Very carefully.

Stephen Joyce was notoriously protective of his family’s legacy, much to the consternation of Joyce scholars. But the days of one person holding all of a dead writer’s communications are probably over.