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A photograph of a bouquet flowers with the center of the image intentionally cut out.

Nothing to See Here

For centuries the study of optics and the use of invisibility in science fiction have developed side by side, each inspiring the other.
by James Gleick via New York Review of Books on July 27, 2023
Painting of a young boy working as an apprentice, wearing an apron

How Long Did the School Year Last in Early America?

Even throwing off of a colonial power, representative institutions, Protestantism, and local autonomy in school decisions did not produce an egalitarian system.
by Carole Shammas via Cambridge Core Blog on June 12, 2023
Calculating machines.

Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control

The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.
by Meredith Whittaker via Logic on May 25, 2023
A man pressing a button on an early IBM computer.

How an IBM Computer Learned to Sing

The IBM 7094 anticipated the future of music—and also sounded like the Auto-Tuned pop stars of today.
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on March 26, 2023
Designed picture of Lambert Adolphe Quetelet and Ancel Keys.

The Strange History of BMI, the Body Mass Index

BMI is a simple calculation, but how it is translated into a diagnosis is complex and flawed.
via STAT on March 9, 2023
An 18th-century building travels Feb. 10 from its location on the campus of William & Mary to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.
partner

Schools for Black American Children Predated the Revolution

Efforts in early America to educate Black children offer us a template for addressing educational inequality today.
by Grant Stanton via Made By History on February 27, 2023
Buckminster Fuller looking at a model of a geodesic dome.

Buckminster Fuller’s Hall of Mirrors

Alec Nevala-Lee’s new biography assesses the complicated legacy of an architect better known for his image than his work.
by Daniel Luis Martinez via The Nation on February 1, 2023
Illustration of Economists in Different Positions in the Government

May God Save Us From Economists

Over the last half-century, economics has infiltrated parts of the federal government where it has no business intruding.
by Timothy Noah via The New Republic on October 25, 2022
Smiley face with game pieces as facial features against a blue background

What the History of AI Tells Us About its Future

IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue was eclipsed by the neural-net revolution. Now, 25 years on, the machine may get the last laugh.
by Clive Thompson via MIT Technology Review on February 18, 2022
Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Other Obsession

Known as a master of horror, he also understood the power—and the limits—of science.
by Daniel Engber via The Atlantic on June 11, 2021

Numbering the Dead

A brief history of death tolls.
by Shannon Pufahl via New York Review of Books on April 21, 2020
Drawing of earth encircled with celestial rings

The Protestant Astrology of Early American Almanacs

The wildly popular books helped people understand farming and health through the movement of the planets, in a way compatible with Protestantism.
by T. J. Tomlin, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on March 15, 2020
multicolor illustration of Gmail icons, iMessage text boxes, reply arrows, and refresh arrows.

Was E-mail a Mistake?

Digital messaging was supposed to make our work lives easier and more efficient, but the math suggests that meetings might be better.
by Cal Newport via The New Yorker on August 6, 2019
The secret message in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug"

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold-Bug” (1843)

Poe’s story of a treasure hunt, revealing the fantastical writer’s hyper-rational penchant for cracking codes.
via The Public Domain Review on July 18, 2019
Margaret Hamilton stands next to a stack of paper as tall as she is - the software she and her team produced for the Apollo project.

Margaret Hamilton Led the NASA Software Team That Landed Astronauts on the Moon

Apollo’s successful computing software was optimized to deal with unknown problems.
by Alice George via Smithsonian on March 14, 2019

The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes

In a new study, researchers uncovered female programmers who made important but unrecognized contributions to genetics.
by Ed Yong via The Atlantic on February 11, 2019

How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music

An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher’s “Believe” to Kanye West to Migos.
by Simon Reynolds via Pitchfork on September 17, 2018

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