It’s been a while since my last post, so I wanted to get back to the blog with an update on what I’ve been working on, and what’s next in 2025.

This summer I was lucky enough to start working with JSTOR Daily as a regular contributor. JSTOR is a large digital repository of academic journals, and a valuable research tool. I was fortunate to have high school teachers who taught us how to use JSTOR and similar resources, and I used them extensively in college.

It was always exciting for me. These journals contain an ongoing conversation between the brightest minds in nearly every academic field. In some cases, those conversations stretch back centuries. On JSTOR, historical documents live side-by-side with cutting edge research.

Generally you get access to JSTOR through affiliation with an educational institution–college students usually get access with their university email. But there are also subscription options for independent scholars and individuals.

JSTOR Daily is an effort to both show off and share the treasures contained in their repositories. Every day, they post very short summaries of fascinating articles. They strive to make these relevant to current events, or to provide essential context to help understand the significance of the research. Each summary contains a link that provides free access to that article.

I’ve been covering a history of science and technology “beat” for JSTOR Daily. So far, it has been an incredibly fulfilling and instructive experience. Summarizing and contextualizing detailed academic articles in 500 words or less is an intriguing writing puzzle. Every time I sit down to write one, I remember a particular conversation with my dad about writing. He shared a famous remark that stuck with me: “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” (From Mark Twain? Now that I’m googling –  Blaise Pascal? Seems like a lot of writers have shared the same feeling.)

It’s helping me accomplish one of my main goals: to highlight and share the incredible work being doing by historians all the time.

You can find my author page here. I’m going to try to start posting on my Bluesky when a new post goes up, but I will also include links in future History Highlights. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

• John Birmingham’s Discovery of the Blaze Star
  • Highlighting the work of historians Paul Mohr and Nicholas Whyte–on nineteenth century Irish astronomy and a recurring nova.
  • This nova was supposed to show up in September, but it stubbornly refused. Any day now!
• Raccoons in the Laboratory
  • Michael Pettit–psychology and animal intelligence in the twentieth century
• HMS Challenger and the History of Science at Sea
  • Antony Adler–technology and oceanography in the nineteenth century
• How Sports Shaped Glacier Science
  • Bruce Hevly–cultural influence on scientific practices in the nineteenth century
• Eisenhower and the Real-Life Nautilus
  • Charles Griffin–the story of the first nuclear submarine
  • I actually got to walk around the Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, CT.
• The Case of the Volcano on the Moon
  • Ronald E. Doel–a scientific dispute in the 1950s

Additional update 2/13/2025:

Since this post, I have been primarily focused on my teaching, JSTOR writing, and other articles, including a new one in Aeon Magazine. However, I have also been doing research for some planned 2025 blog posts. If you’re interested in learning more about early lunar robotics (and musings on the history of scientific exploration and technology), let me know by subscribing to Inverting Vision below: