On care

On care

—A feminist category for rethinking knowledge(s) in a world in crisis.—   The COVID-19 pandemic showed us to what extent our survival as a species relies not only on the care we receive, but also on the care we provide to others, from the beginning of...
Controversy, Control, and Cosmetics in Early Modern Italy

Controversy, Control, and Cosmetics in Early Modern Italy

—In a society that damned women for both plainness and adornment, wearing makeup became a defiant act of survival.—   “Everyone hates to see make-up on his wife,” declares the character Lionardo in the Renaissance treatise On the Family (1433), “but...
Chemical analysis and composition

Chemical analysis and composition

—How practical methods and interpretations of composition evolved in eighteenth-century chemical analysis.—   Composition is a central aspect of modern chemistry. Various substances are identified by some aspect of their elementary composition,...
The evolution of innovation

The evolution of innovation

—How Ancient Greek technology has shaped modern engineering and the current relevance of harmony and moderation.—   Ancient Greek technology represents one of the earliest examples of human ingenuity, laying the groundwork for numerous advancements in...
Neurasthenia: the disease of the century

Neurasthenia: the disease of the century

—Nerves, gender and modernity at the end of the 19th century.—   In 1869, the New York neurologist George Miller Beard (1839–1883) described a new disease before the American Medical Association: neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, which in it’s...
The taste of a century

The taste of a century

—The naturalization of synthetic vanillin from 1874 until 1959.—   Is it possible to describe a particular flavor as the taste of a century? The variety of culinary landscapes suggests that it might be difficult to claim such a dominance for only one...