There is an incredible amount of scientific effort put toward understanding the past and bringing some of it back to life. Everyone agrees it’s nice to have some old structures around—like the pyramids at Giza and the Great Wall of China—but what about the living...

Social movements are powerful engines for change, and they coalesce around a vast range of issues, causes, and communities. But they fall into two basic categories: inclusionary and exclusionary. ...

How humans moved large rocks to construct monuments has fueled many theories, even though it is a matter of physics and coordinated efforts by a large workforce. A more interesting concept to explore for prehistoric cultures is what made people care so much about...

From the earliest beats of human civilization to the electric pulse of modern music, no instrument has carried the weight of human experience quite like the drum. It is one of the oldest instruments known to humankind, a vessel for rhythm that transcends borders, cultures,...

I never expected to make a meaningful contribution to one of the world’s last undeciphered writing systems—especially not over a single weekend. But sometimes, curiosity grabs hold of you, and before you know it, you’re completely consumed by a mystery that refuses to let go. ...

After the end of World War II, the U.S. employer class—the capitalists—faced overlapping threats, both domestic and foreign. On the domestic side, a coalition of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), two socialist parties, and a communist party had grown large and powerful during the...

The evolution of the human mind has allowed us to transcend our modern understandings of time and expand into the realm of “deep time thinking.” One example of this is the Geologic Time Scale (GTS), a human construct that traces the astrophysical...

The rapid growth of digital technologies in the last quarter-century has multiplied the number and types of possible influences on individual values and opinions. Has the digital era changed the level of social conformity in the population? And how can this be measured? ...

Hiking is considered one of the most popular outdoor activities worldwide, offering numerous mental and physical health benefits, and allowing us to connect with nature. Walking long distances, often through diverse biomes and habitats, was originally a necessary means of survival since nomadic...

A 2020 study by the Institute of Psychology, Russian Academy of Sciences researcher Tina Kubrak is one of many reports showing that movies can powerfully influence attitudes on factors like sexual orientation, transgenderism, gender roles, ethnicity, and mental illness. ...