Haywire Sun

Staring Into The Sun

Adam Mastroianni | Experimental History | 3rd October 2023

Even in antiquity an observer could have found that blood circulated in the body of a mammal, and that objects fell to Earth at the same speed. Why did progress in natural science lag thousands of years behind progress in mathematics? Perhaps because popular and pre-scientific beliefs about the world, while wrong, met the needs of the time. "There simply weren't enough ignorance signals" (4,300 words)

From The Browser Seven Years Ago

Every Body Goes Haywire

Anna Altman | n+1 | 6th October 2016

Migraine is an illness consisting entirely of symptoms — and what symptoms they are. “Migraine is associated with severe, throbbing, unilateral pain, an aversion to light and sound, nausea and vomiting, all aggravated by movement. An attack may be announced by what is called an aura, a neurological phenomenon that disrupts a sufferer’s vision with silvery squiggles and zigzags” (5,500 words)