When the EPA needed a way to identify and measure pollutants, Robert Finnigan, an ex–Cold War engineer, offered his computerized mass spectrometer for the job.

The blaze that sparked the modern environmental movement . . . or did it?

An archives collection at the Science History Institute gives a glimpse of Americans’ early efforts at desalination, a technology that nations around the globe have come to depend on.

The life of chimney sweeps was nasty, poor, brutish, filthy dirty, and usually short, thanks to a rare cancer of the genitals.

How an obsession with crustaceans guided the naturalist toward his most consequential insights.

The long, wacky, and surprisingly thought-provoking history of trying animals in human courts.