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177 illustrations
In 1989, a British scientist named Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web while working at CERN in Geneva. He had created something of incalculable...
In the summer of 1924, the world watched as Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell made an astonishing choice. Favored to win gold in the 100-meter dash...
Orthopedic surgeons have a name for it: adhesive capsulitis, commonly known as frozen shoulder. It begins quietly, often after an injury the patient thought had...
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash walked into Folsom State Prison carrying nothing but a guitar and a voice that sounded like it had been...
In January 1922, fourteen-year-old Leonard Thompson lay dying in Toronto General Hospital. He weighed just sixty-five pounds. Type 1 diabetes was devouring him from within...
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal as a medal favorite. He had trained for this moment...
Inside a chrysalis, the caterpillar doesn't simply grow wings. Scientists have discovered something far more radical. The caterpillar's body releases digestive enzymes that break down...
In 1977, NASA launched the *Voyager 1* spacecraft on a journey that would make history. To break free of Earth's gravitational pull, the probe had...
In the summer of 1924, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell arrived at the Paris Olympics as the favorite in the 100 meters. But when he learned...
John Newton had blood on his hands. For years he commanded slave ships, transporting human beings across the Atlantic in conditions of unspeakable horror. He...
In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Eric Liddell faced a decision that confused the watching world. The Scottish sprinter was favored to medal in the 100...
On May 21, 1738, Charles Wesley lay sick in a London bedroom, wrestling with spiritual despair. He had crossed an ocean as a missionary, studied...
In 1987, French neurosurgeon Alim Louis Benabid made a remarkable discovery during brain surgery. While electrically stimulating a region of a patient's brain called the...
In Victor Hugo's *Les Misérables*, Jean Valjean arrives at the door of Bishop Myriel after nineteen years in prison — five for stealing bread, fourteen...
In 1678, John Bunyan published *The Pilgrim's Progress* from the confines of Bedford Jail, where he had been imprisoned for preaching without a license. A...
In 1772, John Newton sat in his study and wrote the words that would become the most recognized hymn in the English language. What most...
In the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, visitors walk a long hallway to reach Michelangelo's famous *David*. But lining that hallway are four extraordinary sculptures most...
In 1748, John Newton nearly drowned when a violent storm battered his ship in the North Atlantic. He had spent years in the slave trade,...
In May of 1738, Charles Wesley was a man who had done everything right and still felt trapped. He had crossed the Atlantic as a...
Michelangelo once described his approach to sculpture not as adding something to marble, but as removing everything that wasn't the figure. He looked at a...
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash walked into Folsom State Prison carrying nothing but a guitar and a voice roughened by years of addiction and...
In 1983, a programmer named Richard Stallman launched the GNU Project with a radical idea: software should be free — not free as in no...
In 1967, psychologist Martin Seligman conducted an experiment that revealed something heartbreaking about the nature of captivity. Dogs were placed in a chamber where they...
In 2014, Google engineer Tadek Pietraszek helped design a revolutionary security key — a tiny USB device called the Titan Security Key that replaced passwords...