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Library of Congress The Philosophy Behind the First American Dictionary
In 1789, Noah Webster called on the newly independent United States to claim its own national version of the English language.
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Heritage Images / Getty The Lucrative Black Market in Human Fat
In 16th- and 17th-century Europe, physicians, butchers, and executioners alike hawked the salutary effects of Axungia hominis.
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Penguin Classics John Okada’s No-No Boy Is a Test of American Character
The re-release of a classic novel about Japanese Americans’ incarceration during World War II is an opportunity to reflect on the nation’s persistent internal conflicts.
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Lee Jin-man / AP The Problem With Social-Media Protests
Online movements can burn out faster than campaigns that spend months or even years forging in-person connections.
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Scott Barbour / Getty Recruiting Women to Online Dating Was a Challenge
Match.com started with questions about weight and explicit sexual preferences. Half the population wasn’t that into it.
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AP Penguins Were a Lonely Explorer’s Best Friends
When the ice closed in, the earliest Antarctic expeditions turned to the birds for discovery, meat, and camaraderie.
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Stringer / Reuters Weibo’s Free-Speech Failure
How a dissident movement almost broke through China’s internet censorship
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Javier Galeano / AP Can a Dolphin Really Commit Rape?
Nature isn’t cruel—it’s just careless.
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Khalil Ashawi / Reuters Getting Lost Makes the Brain Go Haywire
In caves and labyrinths, humans’ cerebral navigation equipment is mostly useless. That can spark panic or free the mind.
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Tim Chong / Reuters The Tricky Ethics of Transplants for Addicts
Many programs require liver recipients to be six months sober, but that policy may funnel organs away from the people they’re most likely to help.
