Object Lessons
Articles published in partnership with Object Lessons
Smartwatches Are Changing the Purpose of the EKG
Wearables help cast the medical test as a talisman of health-care competence. An Object Lesson.
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Christopher Furlong / Getty Why There Are No Nuclear Airplanes
Strategists considered sacrificing older pilots to patrol the skies in flying reactors. An Object Lesson.
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Susan Walsh / AP Why Coal Symbolizes Naughtiness
And how it should be used instead. An Object Lesson.
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Hassan Ammar / AP The Benefits of a Foreign-Language Tattoo
Even when it goes wrong, body art in another tongue can be a good thing. An Object Lesson.
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Anton Ivanov / Shutterstock The Bootleg Video Vans of the Soviet Union
I learned English—and Western culture—watching American movies in smoky minibuses. An Object Lesson.
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hakule / Getty The Star of Norwegian Knitwear
The selburose design wasn’t invented in Norway, but it became a symbol of the country. An Object Lesson.
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Dado Ruvic / Reuters The Fax Is Not Yet Obsolete
Law and medicine still rely on the device. Maybe they shouldn’t. An Object Lesson.
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Brendan Smialowski / Getty The Problem With Feedback
Companies and apps constantly ask for ratings, but all that data may just be noise in the system. An Object Lesson.
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Wellcome Collection When Pop-Up Books Taught Popular Science
Before they were relegated to the domain of children, books with movable mechanisms explained anatomy, astronomy, and more to adults. An Object Lesson.
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TandaV / Unal Ozmen / Everett Historical / ... How Tea Helped Women Sell Suffrage
Private-labeled teas helped fund success during the suffragist movement. Today’s activists might learn from their model. An Object Lesson.
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Bill Eppridge / Getty When Televisions Were Radioactive
Anxieties about the effects of screens on human health are hardly new, but the way the public addresses the problems has changed. An Object Lesson.
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Annie Otzen / Getty Throw Your Children’s Art Away
Childhood is short-lived. It’s okay if kids’ drawings are, too. An Object Lesson.
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Thanh Do / The Atlantic The Mystery of Alexander Hamilton’s Bank Clock
The origins of an 18th-century timepiece are part of an American institution even older than its financial system: embellishing facts. An Object Lesson.
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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / ... Writers Have Always Loved Mobile Devices
Writing boxes, popular from the 17th century, provided the same pleasure as today’s laptops and custom word processors: to make the experience of writing pleasurable, whether any actual writing gets done. An Object Lesson.
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Adam Butler / AP The Draconian Dictionary Is Back
Since the 1960s, the reference book has cataloged how people actually use language, not how they should. That might be changing. An Object Lesson.
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George Frey / AP Microfilm Lasts Half a Millennium
Millions of publications—not to mention spy documents—can be read on microfilm machines. But people still see these devices as outmoded and unappealing. An Object Lesson.
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Mario Armas / Reuters Hot-Air Balloons Are Useless
When they were invented, the vessels promised to revolutionize travel and industry. But they soon settled into life as an entertaining diversion. An Object Lesson.
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Natalie Behring / Reuters Raising the American Flag Made in China
Is the banner’s patriotism undermined when it’s manufactured abroad? An Object Lesson.
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Karen Kasmauski / Getty Why Do People Sign Yearbooks?
Commemorative class books evolved from practical notebooks into collections of hair clippings, rhyming couplets, and “have a great summer” wishes. An Object Lesson.
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Kirn Vintage Stock / Corbis / Getty Teaching Sobriety With ‘The Bottle’
Before and after Prohibition, temperance organizations turned the whiskey or beer vessel into a personification of American moral failure.
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Kai Pfaffenbach How the 50-mm Lens Became ‘Normal’
It’s often called the optic that best approximates human vision, but approximation is relative. An Object Lesson.
