Two notebooks belonging to Charles Darwin, one of which contains his iconic 1837 “Tree of Life” sketch, have been safely returned to Cambridge University Library, more than two decades after first being reported missing. Twenty years ago, two small notebooks written by 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin mysteriously disappeared from the archives of Cambridge University Library. One […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | Trinity College) On October 21, 1638, people were congregating at a church at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, in Devon, England, when a severe thunderstorm broke out. Witnesses described an 8-foot ball of fire hurtling through the church, tossing large stones from the walls to the ground, smashing pews and windows, […]
Enlarge / Portrait of Catherine the Great. Her 1787 letter to Count Piotr Aleksandrovich Rumiantsev—now up for auction—called for a national vaccination campaign against smallpox. (credit: Public domain ) During her long reign, Catherine the Great ‘s leadership transformed Russia into a powerhouse of Europe. She was also a leader in public health policy, championing […]
Enlarge / Stanley Miller with the original laboratory equipment used in the 1952 Miller-Urey Experiment, which gave credence to the idea that organic molecules could have been created by the conditions of the early Earth’s atmosphere. (credit: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images) In 1952, a University of Chicago chemist named Stanley Miller and his adviser, Harold Urey, […]
French physicist Gabriel Lippmann pioneered color photography and snagged the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physics for his efforts. But according to a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lippmann’s technique distorted the colors of the scenes being photographed. Physicists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland […]
Enlarge / In 1953, the eminent physicist and H-bomb advocate took an ill-fated overnight train from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, that would indirectly lead to the Robert Oppenheimer security hearing. (credit: Michail_Petrov-96/iStock/Getty Images) In the popular science world, physicist John Wheeler is probably best known for popularizing the term “black hole,” although his research spanned […]
Enlarge / Earlier this year, researchers analyzed the skulls of early Caribbean inhabitants, using 3D facial “landmarks” as a genetic proxy for determining how closely people groups were related to one another. A follow-up study this month added ancient DNA analysis into the mix, with conflicting results. (credit: Ann Ross/North Carolina State University) There’s rarely […]
Enlarge / These might look like your standard leather-bound texts, but they are actually bound in human skin—a practice known as “anthropodermic bibliopegy.” All five are housed in the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. (credit: Mütter Museum/College of Physicians of Philadelphia)) There’s rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So […]
Medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris hosts the Smithsonian Channel’s new documentary show The Curious Death and Life of…. Infamous historic cold cases receive a scientific face-lift at The Curious Death and Life Of…, a brand new documentary series in the Smithsonian Channel. Hosted by writer and medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris, every one of those six episodes […]