History articles from across Nature Portfolio

Research on cannabis was hotting up 50 years ago, and accessible lectures on the physics of matter from Nobel laureate William Bragg, in this week’s dip into Nature’s archive.

Sequencing of 7,000-year-old human genomes from when the Sahara Desert was green suggest that pastoralism spread through cultural exchange, not large-scale migration.

Why really good trombones sound the way they do, and the peculiar motion of creatures in the ocean, in this week’s dip into Nature’s archive.

Historic documents indicate that fish were introduced to Pyrenean lakes in the 14–15th centuries. Here, the authors examine sedimentary DNA from fish parasites in Lake Redon, suggesting fish were introduced by Late-Roman or Visigoths in the 7th century.

The authors estimate income inequality in the Roman Empire and the Chinese Han Empire. They find that the Han Empire was, overall, more unequal and extractive than the Roman Empire, with the respective one-percenters earning 26% and 19% of total income.

Analysis of ancient proteins identifies jawbone as belonging to archaic human group.

Research on cannabis was hotting up 50 years ago, and accessible lectures on the physics of matter from Nobel laureate William Bragg, in this week’s dip into Nature’s archive.

The 50th anniversary of a landmark biosafety conference is an opportunity to ensure its spirit lives on in today’s scientists.

Science journalist and author Carl Zimmer joins us to talk about his new book Air-borne.

This April, we reflect on the varied and surprisingly close connection between physics and cats.

The Metre Convention was signed in May 1875, bringing international agreement on how to measure accurately and consistently — a consensus that was essential for trade, industrialization and scientific progress. 150 years later, how does the metrology community continue this tradition?