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+21 +1
Black Death Left a Mark on Human Genome
The Black Death didn’t just wipe out millions of Europeans during the 14th century. It left a mark on the human genome, favoring those who carried certain immune system genes, according to a new study. Those changes may help explain why Europeans respond differently from other people to some diseases and have different susceptibilities to autoimmune disorders.
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+21 +3
A History of the Pigeon
One hundred and seventy-five years ago, Charles Darwin set out with a survey voyage, aboard the HMS Beagle, in what would be a groundbreaking expedition for his own theories, and the way the world would come to see the origin of species. Darwin brought this curiosity home to England, and found a way to test his thoughts on speciation, using an animal equally admired and despised: the pigeon.
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+26 +5
How the World Has Changed in the 10 Years Since Facebook
The Facebook you see now is almost unrecognizable compared to the version that debuted ten years ago today. Even the name is different. The social network was officially called "The Facebook" until 2005.
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+20 +6
A Primer on the Eight Olympic Events Debuting in Sochi
Study up on the rules and history of the latest competitions to make the Winter Games lineup
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+5 +1
Facebook's Greatest Innovations: The First Decade
Facebook, the world’s most widely used social network, celebrates its 10th anniversary today. It’s come a long way from its beginnings as a wayward Harvard student’s dorm room hack. From Facemash, to “thefacebook,” to its official public debut in September 2006, to its May 2012 IPO, the social network and has undergone some pretty massive transformations in a relatively short time.
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+13 +3
What Makes American Cuisine American?
At its essence, American food began as a cuisine of survival free from the burdens of tradition and elitism. Little has changed.
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+16 +3
The Real Story Behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign
Apple’s remarkable rise, coupled with Steve Jobs’ recent death, has prompted quite a few people to reflect on the historical impact of the “Think Different” ad campaign and the “To the crazy ones” commercial that launched it. There have been a lot of different accounts of how the work was created, who conceived it, and how it was presented to Jobs, so I thought now was a good time to share my own perspective and give you an inside look.
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+14 +3
The first congressman to battle the NSA is dead. No-one noticed, no-one cares.
Last month, former Congressman Otis Pike died, and no one seemed to notice or care. That’s scary, because Pike led the House’s most intensive and threatening hearings into US intelligence community abuses, far more radical and revealing than the better-known Church Committee’s Senate hearings that took place at the same time. That Pike could die today in total obscurity, during the peak of the Snowden NSA scandal, is, as they say, a “teachable moment”
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+15 +4
An Olympics in the Shadow of a War Zone
The Olympic Games that begin this week in Russia will be held just around the corner from one of the most violent parts of Europe. About 300 miles east of the Olympic city of Sochi, north of the Caucasus Mountains, the Russian army has fought two full-scale wars with Chechen separatists. As the wars wound down, Islamic extremism spread throughout the region, forcing Moscow to put the Games into a security lockdown.
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+15 +5
The Town That's Building Life Around Sleep
The way society is organized means that most of us don't sleep when our bodies naturally want to. A small town in Germany wants to change that.
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+11 +5
Veterans celebrate Colossus at 70
Colossus veterans and their families gather today at The National Museum of Computing located on Bletchley Park to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Colossus, the world's first electronic computer. They will see a re-enactment of the code-breaking process from intercept to decrypt with a working rebuild of Colossus.
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+8 +1
China fury at Japanese claim that Nanjing massacre never took place
China's foreign ministry has criticised remarks by a board member of Japan's state broadcaster who said a massacre carried out by Japanese troops in China's then-capital of Nanjing in 1937 did not happen. China consistently reminds people of Japan's historical brutality, such as the Nanjing massacre in which China says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people.
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+17 +4
The history white people need to learn
Anyone who wants "white history month" should learn instead about how whiteness has been used to discriminate
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+16 +1
What Is NASA for?
The space agency’s need to find a justification for its existence has damaged its integrity.
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+3 +1
A Brief History of Jay Leno's Joke-Stealing
Tonight marks Jay Leno's final episode as host of The Tonight Show, after occupying that position for some 21 non-consecutive years. Many would argue that he stole that job from David Letterman, whom Leno's predecessor, Johnny Carson, had picked for the spot. Many would argue that he then stole it again from Conan O'Brien, who briefly occupied the spot from 2009-2010 when Leno failed to transition his act to prime time.
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+19 +2
How to Give Birth 100 Years Ago
Up until the mid-19th century, childbirth was something men avoided. Women had babies in a room full of other women, aided by female midwives and nurses. Then the profession of "doctor" began to mean more than "guy who waves burning sage over your head while draining your blood." Science entered the practice of medicine, and it became a respectable profession that was almost exclusively the domain of men.
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+17 +5
10 Photographs of the 1980 Moscow Olympics
As the Olympics open in Sochi, we look back at the last time Russia hosted the world’s top athletes.
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+6 +2
The Loneliness of Vladimir Putin
He crushed his opposition and has nothing to show for it but a country that's falling apart
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+22 +5
What Exactly Do Priests Have to Do to Get Kicked Out of the Church?
Nearly a year ago, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the world's first Jesuit pope. This was an unlikely choice: In the final stage of their vows, the order's priests promise never to strive for higher office within the Catholic Church or their community. The order's founder, Ignatius of Loyola, was also opposed to Jesuits becoming bishops—and now a Jesuit is the bishop of Rome.
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+14 +6
When the Beatles Arrived in America, Reporters Ignored the Music and Obsessed Over Hair
They'd go on to change American music forever, but the press focused on the moptops...
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