From his precious cigarette card collection, to first locking eyes with his baby daughter, to responding to the age of the selfie, the renowned historian has always been fascinated by faces and how they are depicted. But how to begin telling the story of Britain through its portraits?
Stanford is known as one of the best schools for education, and for getting an edge as an entrepreneur, but this wasn't always true. How did Stanford become so intertwined with Silicon Valley, and what will happen if the relationship unravels?
The PBS documentary turns 25 this year, just as the Charleston murders and the Confederate flag debate freshly exposed a nation’s racial wounds — wounds the film mostly ignores.
It seem like common sense that more work will yield more product, but some companies are starting to scale back the workweek and getting surprising results.
Dolphins are one of the smartest animal species on Earth. In fact, their encephalization quotient (their brain size compared to the average for their body size) is second only to humans. But exactly how smart are they?
Outbursts, although infrequent, are welcomed by the fans and are even encouraged by coaches at a junior level.
One haunting piece, published in the New York Times magazine in August of 1939, portrayed Hitler at home, showing off his tomato garden and his stylish living room. The front page of the very same newspaper discussed how Jews were being beaten and their businesses ransacked, while Nazi troops amassed on the Polish border.
Fill your head with the week's best documentaries, short films and animations. This week's featured short: "Wire Cutters."
The shape of the nose is imbued with assumptions about one’s character and place in society. Various efforts to fix undesirably shaped noses by way of plastic surgery have been employed over two millennia.
US, China are betting millions on the promise of this newish field, but the real-world potential remains a mystery.
A small West Virginia town slowly poisoned by DuPont, a young man's escape from the cultish Jesus People USA, and the tough road ahead for Atlantic City.
While the more common type of Alzheimer’s carries a genetic risk component that means certain people are more likely to develop the disease, this genetic mutation is different: For an unlucky few like Jo, it’s a terrible guarantee.
Something magical is happening in the poorest countries of the world. With smartphone prices plummeting, with ever-affordable, and fast, mobile data and with increasingly user-friendly services, tech has taken off in Africa.
If you spend most of your time walking and talking like most characters on Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing," you'd better be adept at throwing on your suit jacket while you walk.
Jon Stewart used his TV platform to become one of the world’s sharpest political commentators. Fresh from his Edinburgh show, how will his South African successor fare?
Four years ago, a massive stroke on Christmas Day robbed Maggie Reynolds of control over half her body, though not her zeal. Now she is part of an experimental therapy that uses video games to potentially rehabilitate motion in the affected parts of her body.
We know, it's no Epic Meal Time, but here's a how-to on beer can chicken that you'll still be able to comprehend after that fifth shitty beer.
Pope Francis on Sunday called on every parish, religious community, monastery and sanctuary in Europe to shelter refugees fleeing “death from war and hunger,” adding that the Vatican’s two parishes would lead the way by taking in two families.
Most of Assange's charges in Sweden have expired, but the US and UK have started an international campaign to make travel almost impossible for Assange.
I was diagnosed with Moebius Syndrome. Its most noticeable symptom? I cannot smile. At the age of 13, my mother took me to see a plastic surgeon.
Refugees from Syria and other war-torn countries have fled violence and persecution, carrying with them only a few belongings on a dangerous trek across multiple countries.
The Tamagawa baths, situated in the mountains of Japan’s Akita prefecture, have long been believed to hold medicinal powers. Today, the area attracts cancer patients from all over the country, who hope that the naturally acidic hot springs and radioactive stones might heal them.
Much more than just a punch line, the fanny pack liberates the wearer, enabling wild abandon.
The nervous system is a funny thing, and this bowfish's nervous system decided to keep protecting itself 40 minutes after the fish was dead. Or maybe this fish is just possessed?
As the price of solar panels continues to fall and solar power becomes available in more US markets, more US homeowners considering the switch may face a dilemma: Should they rent or buy?
A new breed of sophisticated hacker is emerging as one of the most worrisome digital adversaries for western intelligence chiefs: cyber privateers.
What does it all mean? Let us examine a few and determine if this isn't an extremely elaborate cry for help.
Insects are an environmentally friendly source of protein because they can be raised on a fraction of the land and water required for traditional livestock, like cattle.
The Canadian singer, who just released her third album, serves up a soundtrack for a night feasting on homemade lasagna, grooving on the dance floor, and mending broken hearts.
For her most ambitious work German animator Lotte Reiniger looked all the way to Arabia, adapting stories from no less venerable a source than "One Thousand and One Nights." The 65-minute result, 1926’s "The Adventures of Prince Achmed," stands as the earliest animated feature film.
Instead of "Star Wars," they have "Thumb Wars." Instead of "Titanic," the have "Thumbtanic," a tragic tale of two thumbs riding on a turbulent ship of love. And instead of "The Godfather," it’s "The Godthumb" who fills his cheeks with cotton balls. This is the world of Thumb!
Saturday is, effectively, Opening Day for college football. And already, we have a contender for worst play of the year, courtesy of the fumble-happy Kansas Jayhawks.
In what follows, we highlight these disappointing albums and unexpectedly good albums. We also identify the artists who exhibit the most and least consistency in quality.
Two ice cream vendors. Seventeen playgrounds. One city.
Adam Hinton has photographed the most dangerous places in the world, none more so than El Salvador, where the MS-13 gang welcomed him gladly into their community and their private prison.
More than 3,700 killed by gunfire. Nearly 8,200 wounded. The real story of the season was not the shootings that drew the most headlines.
The guy behind Primitive Technology has previously shown us how to make a Stone Age axe, which you'll need to harvest the lumber for your fancy, shingle-roof home in the woods.
It sounds like something out of a "Terminator" movie. Chemical engineers at the University of Michigan have developed a plastic that instantly heals itself when it’s cracked by a bullet or other projectile.
Math is cool, be a nerd.
Is this safe? Probably not. At least not for your windows.
The University of Iowa's fanzine collection is going digital before it falls apart.
Sophisticated models and supercomputers allow researchers to create a high-fidelity map of the Earth's trees — and show that we’re losing billions of trees a year.
Either the Orlando City midfielder just doesn't have the image recognition he used to, or these mall patrons are unphased by what would be a full-sized wax model. We think it's his haircut. Bring back the crazy haircut Brek.
It can be effervescent and puckery, it can be funky and cloudy, it can veer sharply towards red. Squeezing rosé into a physical box is just fine; limiting it to a conceptual box does a disservice to all potential drinkers.
Mary Norris, a copy editor at The New Yorker, offers a brief primer on the three types of dashes (hyphen, en dash and em dash) and how to use them.
Long before they found their way to the sport’s most hallowed temples, where did the top players first learn to swing a racket? Visit the childhood courts of Novak Djokovic, the Williams sisters, Roger Federer and others.
The bulk of the research in medicine, sleep, cognitive science, and organizational psychology overwhelmingly suggests that a shorter workweek should be the norm rather than the holiday-weekend exception.
We're creatures of habit, and change can be difficult, inconvenient, and terrifying.
A new robot concept called Hedgehog could explore the microgravity environment of comets and asteroids by hopping and rolling around on them, avoiding problems like the ones that have plagued the Philae Lander.
More than a quarter of parents in a recent poll say they hope their teens who play high school sports will become professional athletes. But sky-high parental expectations can have a dark side.
An extraordinary march of migrants broke through Hungarian obstacles and reached Austria on Saturday morning after a night of frantic negotiations among German, Austrian and Hungarian officials cleared the way.
It might not be perfect, but slap a little image stabilization on in post and you're good to go.
We don’t get to read the messages on the reverse — "Wish you were here! (instead of me)" — but we do wonder at the photographs these homes rejected, pictures the owners and marketeers thought failed to capture the true essence and warmth of the place.
It includes more biometrics and 'intelligence-driven' procedures.
In the immortal words of Miley Cyrus, "Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days."
Movile Cave has been cut off for millions of years. Its air is thick with poison, yet it is home to an array of strange animals.
You probably aren’t taking enough. Take lots and lots of selfies. Experiment with lighting, angle, pose, expression. Most of them will be bad, but that’s okay — you don’t have to do anything with them. The more you take, the better you’ll get.
Restaurant chains that want to let diners customize their meals — but balk at upending their kitchens — have found the answer: sauce.
Astronomers have solved part of a longstanding mystery: the source of dark lines observed in the spectra of light from the Milky Way.
Childhood has become a period of high-stakes preparation for life in a stratified economy.
After a stand of cypress resisted a forest fire that burned 50,000 acres in Spain, researchers say that the plant could be used as a buffer to prevent other fires from spreading.
