Weights, measures and classification systems may seem like innocuous ways of taking stock of the world around us. But the tools are anything but objective, a new exhibition suggests. Measuring ...

“Beyond Measure,” by James Vincent, tells the story of human civilization through its systems of measurement, showing how they have promoted knowledge, social control and ongoing conflict. By Jennifer ...

In prehistoric times, not much needed to be measured. You ate what you found and lived where you could. The advent of agriculture and civilization, however, necessitated a way for people to measure ...

WE TAKE the certainty of measurements for granted, but their story is as complicated and changeable as any other part of human culture. Journalist James Vincent makes this clear in his new book, which ...

Imagine a prisoner in a cell, tabulating time served. Those groups of four lines crossed with a diagonal fifth have a long history. It stretches back to the Wolf Bone, found in what is now the Czech ...

When it comes to measuring things, there are some odd units of measurement out there. While measuring in feet is standard, there are many weirder ways to measure. Did you know a hand is a unit of ...