Julia F. P. Ostmann writes from Southern California about nineteenth-century mushrooms, hybrid burritos, and brain science. Next year she’s excited to move into Stephen Hawking’s old dorm at Cambridge, where she'll be studying history and philosophy of science. If you follow her at @JuliaOstmann, she will probably retweet you.
Science fiction has a huge race problem, and stock solutions don’t cut it. You’re welcome: 19th century math genius gets Hamilton-ized. The electrifying history of modern fencing. Ah, Ancient Greece. Land…
Nabokov’s epilepsy, heart problems, and unpublished letters. A dictionary for the fleshy bits of brain that store our words. Ephemerality meets Instagram. The secret sauce behind NBC’s Olympics telecast. Your designated…
You subconsciously love car alarms and early morning construction. Nature on Mary Shelley and brains that “whizzed.” Well-aged whiskey sans barrel: researchers’ little secret. Save money! Eat salad! Click here…
Boy meets lichen, proves 150 years of science textbooks wrong. Want to improve your social skills? Try fiction, not speed-dating. How wasps gave us Shakespeare. In psychology, American undergrad =…
If you give a mouse an Orson Welles film, he might solve human consciousness. Your great-great grandkids might text from the grave. What Westerners consider universal about music: totally incorrect.…
New York Times readers who ignore The Economist: Danger, groupthink ahead. Data suggests police de-escalation can work. Goats have feelings, too. (Sheep, not so much.) Babies brainwash you with their cuteness. If…
Extremely large and incredibly close (to your tent): bison! Did you know Tom Sawyer used glowing fungi (a real thing) to light up a tunnel? Watch 6,000 years of civilization…
A professor who lived as a badger shares nature-writing tips. Casual sex after college: definitely a thing. Peanut butter purity battles—and is “natural” food really better? NASA plays God, recreates Earth.…
Our intimate lives feed the meat grinder of big data. The first casualty of climate change: this adorable rodent. Racial bias in healthcare research, and why it’s dangerous. An exoplanet…
Neurons act like Donald Trump. A beetle named for both Darwin and David Sedaris? It’s quiz time. Holy leaping electric eels! Books you can binge. The ultimate superhero is not Batman, says science. Martin Shkreli,…