Once viewed as a precious item of mysterious origin, the seed of the coco do mer palm, though better understood today, remains a rare and valuable commodity.

The electron microscope brought about a paradigm shift in virology in the middle of the twentieth century.

Alan Turing and Christopher Strachey created a ground-breaking computer program that allowed them to express affection vicariously when so doing publicly, as gay men, was criminal.

The Arctic archipelago is a bellwether for global climate change, but it also offers a safety net in a planetary disaster scenario.

Astronomer Arthur S. Eddington argued that astronomy should be above politics, even when politics leads to world war.

The source of quinine, cinchona tells a story about the value placed on parts of plants and how that value can be extracted and distorted in support of empire.

According to some political scientists, it's more about group identity than personal interests.

Today’s headlines make climate change seem like a recent discovery. But Eunice Newton Foote and others have been piecing it together for centuries.

If we name each generation based on the technological conditions it experienced, generations may soon encompass only a few years apiece.

Bezoars, a strange lump formed in the belly of a goat, once were considered a panacea, and worth more than their weight in gold.