When The Washington Post laid off more than a third of its employees on February 4, the paper’s foundation was shaken. The cuts were wide-ranging, shuttering the sports desk right before the Winter ...

Materials science is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the understanding and application of the properties of matter. Materials scientists study the connections between the underlying ...

Slate’s archives are full of fascinating stories. We’re republishing this article because it remains a reader favorite. It was originally published April 12, 2017. In 2022, the author of this piece, ...