Imagine you’re pushing a child on a swing. She pumps her legs to gain momentum, but your push also helps her accelerate.
A catalyst has a similar purpose: It can speed a chemical reaction without being consumed by it. And, since 90 percent of all commercially produced chemical products involve catalysts in their manufacture, chances are good that the swing the child sits on, the snack she eats, her plastic toys, and the insulation in her house are all made with catalysts.
Chemical production, with or without catalysts, accounts for nearly 25 percent of energy use worldwide. What’s...
The ethnic villages of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 exposed Americans to different cultures, but they also promoted stereotypes — many of which are reflected in a picture book from the era displayed in Harvard’s Peabody Museum.
To counter the book’s often-condescending descriptions of the people who were recruited from around the world to work in the fair’s Midway — in attractions such as the Moorish Palace and Eskimo Village — curators enlisted students to do research. The result is a digital display pairing the book’s 80 full-page portraits of Midway performers with new bios and...
