Richard Conniff

  • features

    How science came to Yale

    Benjamin Silliman, a young lawyer, traveled to Philadelphia in 1802 with a few mineral specimens in a candle box. It was Yale’s first step on the path to becoming a university.

    March 1 2015

  • Arts & Culture

    Object lesson

    When Thomas Jefferson visited Yale

    April 30 2009

  • features

    The man who saved the dinosaurs

    Dinosaurs were lumbering, stupid, scientifically boring beasts—until John Ostrom rewrote the book on them.

    July 1 2014 | Ico comments 7 comments
  • Christopher Gardner

    features

    The brain cutter

    Harvey Cushing, father of modern neurosurgery, performed his first operation as a Yale undergraduate. (The “patient” was a dog.) He didn’t work at Yale again for 40 years. But in his will, he left Yale the fruits of his labor.

    December 31 2010
  • Mark Morosse

    features

    A tale of two windows

    In 1970, Yale's stained-glass Tiffany masterpiece disappeared. Or did it?

    December 31 2009
  • Julie Brown

    features

    The fraud detective

    Jim Chanos saw through Enron, Tyco, and the subprime mortgage mess. And made money on them.

    August 31 2013 | Ico comments 2 comments

  • features

    Nature, nurture, or network?

    Your friends and family influence your drinking, sleep, weight, and happiness—more than you think.

    September 1 2014 | Ico comments 1 comment

  • features

    The founder of modern ecology

    At five, G. Evelyn Hutchinson collected water mites. At Yale, his research on freshwater species reshaped scientific thinking about natural history.

    November 1 2015