Comics

Bird’s eye view of person sitting alone in a prison cell.

The invention of incarceration

Prisons have been controversial since their beginnings in the late 1700s — why do they keep failing to live up to expectations?

Photograph of several people sitting in bleachers in a stadium taking part in many kinds of social interactions, such as shaking hands, kissing and talking.

Society

Why real-life places still matter in the age of texting and Twitter

Interactions in physical spaces, whether around the watercooler or at the neighborhood bar, are crucial to forming social ties

Three pages of an old manuscript lavishly illustrated with plants and animal life. There is a lot of brown writing on the pages too.

Society

Can statistics help crack the mysterious Voynich manuscript?

The meaning of the cryptic text has eluded scholars for centuries. Their latest efforts include computational analyses seeking new insights into the medieval enigma.

Conceptual illustration featuring a hand on a spring reaching out for a soda can. A weight labeled with a dollar sign is attached to the spring, making it more difficult for the hand to reach the soda.

Health & Disease

The global soda tax experiment

An increasing number of cities and countries have begun taxing sugary beverages. But can raising the price of these drinks really make a dent in obesity, diabetes and other ailments?