The modern marathon distance comes from the 1908 London Olympics. Shutterstock The story behind the marathon is more complicated than it seems....
Matthew McIntosh
Fallen star sword. Daniella Comelli/University of Pisa Research has confirmed a knife found in the ancient Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb was made...
Hartmann Schedel (German, Nuremberg 1440–1514 Nuremberg) Registrum huius Operis libri cronicarum cum figuris et ymagibus ab inicio mundi,...
  By Austin Brown (left) and Alex Mensing (right) / 11.30.2017 Brian Eno’s creative activities defy categorization. Widely...
Statue of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Ververidis Vasilis/Shutterstock It nurtures empathy and rational thought. By Dr. Angie Hobbs...
The Battle of Gibraltar, by Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen, c.1621 / Rijksmuseum via Wikimedia Commons Edited by Matthew A....
Emilia Romagna castle fortress in Italy / Creative Commons Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 05.09.2018 Historian...
10th century CE Greek copy of Aristarchus of Samos’s calculations of the relative sizes of the sun, moon and the...
A key part of civilisation? E Photos, CC BY-SA The discovery of a 4,000-year-old wine cellar in Israel has provided the best direct evidence yet of the raucous, boozy celebrations...
Cheeky. Tim Large Most people’s shortbread-tin ideas about the Highlands and Islands are missing a key traditional ingredient. By Dr. Peter Mackay / 10.24.2017...
Science Oxford But the British soon got the hang of profanity. By Emily Reed / 03.15.2018 Doctoral...
The terribly good Brief Encounter (1945). The BFI/Eagle Lion Distributors Is British English being swallowed up by American English – or are both versions...
TonelloPhotography/Shutterstock.com Each discipline tells us only part of the story. And so the truest picture of prehistory comes from...
Linguistic controversy: could ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia? Sharon Mollerus Looking at language in...
Nisarg Desai observes wild chimps known as Sandi, Ferdinand and Siri in Tanzania. Michael Wilson, CC BY-ND Do chimpanzee talk to...
Detail from Portrait of Dr Gachet (1890), by Vincent van Gogh. Private collection. / Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Kieran...
Busts of Sokrates, Antisthenes, Chrysippos, Epikouros / Photo by Matt Neale, Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Peter O’Hara /...
Apes (detail) in the Northumberland Bestiary, about 1250–60, unknown illuminator, made in England. Pen-and-ink drawing tinted with body...
Ants in the Northumberland Bestiary, about 1250–60, unknown illuminator, made in England. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms....
    By (left-to-right) Dr. N. Alan Clark, Dr. Thomas Heflin, and Dr. Elizabeth Kramer Clark: Director of...
Detail of The Effects of Good Government, a fresco in the City Hall of Siena by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1338. / By Wikimedia Commons...
By Dr. Vaughn Davis Bornet / 05.06.2018 Professor Emeritus of History Southern Oregon College Because I turned 100 last...
Karl Marx Monument in Chemnitz, in eastern Germany. AP Photo/Jens Meyer A scholar of literary radicalism asks whether Marx’s...
Technicians attend a rehearsal of the show Universal Judgment: Michelangelo and the Secrets of the Sistine Chapel, directed...
Piero della Francesca, Flagellation of Christ, c. 1455-65, oil and tempera on wood, 58.4 × 81.5 cm (Galleria...
By Dr. Michael Fowler Maxine S. and Jesse W. Beams Professor of Physics , Physics Education,Theoretical Condensed Matter...
Eratosthenes teaching in Alexandria, by Bernardo Strozzi / Montreal Museum of Fine Arts via Wikimedia Commons The Greeks made...
Kurokawa’s Toshiba-IHI Pavilion, Osaka Expo 1970. Takato Manui / Wikimedia Commons By Darran Anderson / 12.07.2015 One of...
The Emperor Sigismund Arriving in Siena in The Story of Two Lovers with texts written in Latin by Eneas Silvius...
Portrait of Thomas Wolsey, artist unknown, late 16th century — National Portrait Gallery via Wikimedia Commons Characterised as...