A mathematical equation

Invented Math, Trustworthy Vaccines, and New Sugar

Well-researched stories from Smithsonian, FiveThirtyEight, and more great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Photograph: A woman helps in the research into hay fever by breathing into a machine that records breathing patterns. 

Source: Getty

Breathing Machines, New Fires, and Life on Venus

Well-researched stories from Aeon, Yale 360, and more great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Mushrooms in a forest

Fungi, Red Skies, and Simplistic Thinking

Well-researched stories from Catapult, Slate, and more great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Tattoos on a person's knuckles

Punctuation, Vikings, and COVID’s Long Shadow

Well-researched stories from Aeon, Slate, and more great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Broken chair

Bad Chairs, Happy Memories, and Vigilante-Friendly Cops

Well-researched stories from The Guardian, Forge, and more great publications that that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
The Lost Colony, design by William Ludwell Sheppard, engraving by William James Linton.

Fake Mystery, Real Boredom, and Black Infants’ Lives

Well-researched stories from Vice, The New Yorker, and more great publications that that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Car door

Lying Cars, Workplace Racism, and Astrological Science

Well-researched stories from Mel Magazine, The Cut, and more great publications that that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Idyllic neighborhood on lakefront at dawn.

Sprawl, Body Odor, and Disaster in Beirut

Well-researched stories from NPR, The Guardian, and more great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
A 1960 advertisement for Woodbury Soap

Clean Skin, Ancient Microbes, and Mom Shame

Well-researched stories from The New Yorker, Wired, and more great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Interior of a London Coffee-house, 17th century

The News Junkies of the Eighteenth Century

Hooked on viral news (or is it gossip?), today's Twitter hordes owe a lot to history's coffeehouses.