history

The Black Death wasn’t the only plague in the 1300s.

A school lesson leads to more precise measurements of the extinct megalodon shark, one of the largest fish ever.

Pythagoras may have believed that the entire cosmos was constructed out of right triangles.

Hippocrates overturned conventional wisdom and invented modern medicine.

Today, it’s common knowledge, but it took scientists centuries to figure out.

ExtendNY stretches the Big Apple’s gridiron all across the globe – with some bizarre effects

How our fantasy world of the past has become everyday reality.

A thought experiment from 1867 leads scientists to design a groundbreaking information engine.

Curious about the most used emoji on social media?

There were at least four major climate catastrophes that reshaped global religion. It could be happening again.

These Roman Emperors were infamous for their debauchery and cruelty.

As bad as this sounds, a new essay suggests that we live in a surprisingly egalitarian age.

How do archaeologists know if someone was buried intentionally tens of thousands of years ago?

The mummy was first thought to be a male priest. But a recent radiological analysis revealed a surprising anomaly.

Scientists discover what our human ancestors were making inside the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa 1.8 million years ago.

Did the 20th century bring a breakthrough in how children are treated?

Why are rapture ideologies exploding?

How fabric helped build modern civilization.

A study from Carnegie Mellon University tracks the travels of tarantulas since the Cretaceous period.

A Harvard professor’s study discovers the worst year to be alive.

Without the now-obscure land investment affair, Georgia might have been a “super state.”

The ‘Monkeydactyl’ was a flying reptile that evolved highly specialized adaptations in the Mesozoic Era.

Dancing, for Nietzsche, was another way of saying Yes! to life.

Modern science progresses with an intensity and even irrationality that Aristotle could not fathom.

Hunter-gatherers probably had more spare time than you.

A new study provides a possible scientific explanation for the existence of stories about ancient saints performing miracles with water.

“It’s not always about agreement, more often it’s about business.”

A curated list of must-watch films from Big Think readers.

James Gillray’s ‘plumb-pudding’ caricature is “probably the most famous political cartoon of all time.”

Digitized logbooks from the 1800s reveal a steep decline in strike rate for whalers.