Humans throughout history have begun their years on so many different days that the alternatives, to quote late British historian A. F. Pollard, are “almost legion.” Jan. 1 is the most familiar to ...

In 1981, many of the world’s leading cosmologists gathered at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a vestige of the coupled lineages of science and theology located in an elegant villa in the gardens ...

We stand at the beginning of history. For every person alive today, ten have lived and died in the past. But if human beings survive as long as the average mammal species, then for every person alive ...