Indigenous traditions and communities have helped preserve the plants of the Americas since time immemorial. In this special episode of Useful Knowledge, part of the APS’s America’s Scientific Revolutionaries series, hear a conversation about some of the plants and gardens across the Americas , their traditional use, and how we can protect life on our planet through careful cultivation.

This episode features Dr. Alejandro de Ávila (APS 2025), founding director of the Jardín Etnobiológico de Oaxaca, Dr. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, Tohono O’odham Studies Program instructor at Tohono O’odham Community College, Dr. Gary Nabhan, Research Social Scientist Emeritus at the University of Arizona, and host Patrick Spero at a public lecture reflecting on the legacies of 18th century naturalists John and William Bartram held in the spring of 2026 at Mission Garden in Tucson, Arizona. 

Are monsters real?

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, host Patrick Spero joins author, historian, and self-proclaimed “monster consultant” Surekha Davies to learn about what she calls “monsterification” in human societies. A central theme in her 2025 book Humans: A Monstrous History, Davies suggests that while monsters like giants, cyclopes, and werewolves are not real, humans have used monster stories since time immemorial to separate categories and establish norms—the ultimate “us versus them” tradition. Learn about monsters, humans, society, and science in this episode. 

Surekha Davies is a historian of science, art, and ideas, and a self-proclaimed “monster consultant.” Davies is the award-winning author of Humans: A Monstrous History (University of California Press, 2026) and Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters (2016), as well as numerous articles, essays, and book chapters.

Davies earned her Ph.D. in Combined Historical Studies at the University of London, and her work has been supported by numerous fellowships, grants, and appointments, including Franklin Research Grants from the American Philosophical Society in 2013 and 2018.

Generative AI is a tool that seems to be everywhere. When used correctly, it can help us learn about history in new ways. How can we use generative AI to study history responsibly and ethically?

Reflect on how training bias, researcher bias, preservation bias, and sycophancy affect the AI model’s ability to analyze the primary source. What steps can we take to responsibly use AI to research history?

This activity is written with middle through high school students in mind and it aligns with PA State Standards for History and Social Studies, 8th Grade CC.8.5.6-8.B and CC.8.5.6-8.F.  

The Declaration is a founding document of the United States. But, did you know that there are many versions of the Declaration? What are the differences between the versions? Which one do you feel is the most official?

Each version of the Declaration has differences and a history of its own. This activity takes students through the early history of printing and sharing the Declaration. It provides information to help students find the differences between four of these versions.

This activity is written with middle through high school students in mind and it aligns with PA State Standards for History and Social Studies, CC.5.1.6.F, CC.5.1.7.F, CC.5.1.8.F, and CC.8.3.6-9,12 B. 

Initiating a Loan Request

• Initiate all loan requests at least one year prior to the start of the loan.
• Submit all loan requests to the APS Registrar, Michael Miller, at [email protected].
• The loan request email should include a formal letter of request, your current General Facility Report, and a draft loan agreement for incoming items, all in PDF format.
• The formal letter of request must be on letterhead, addressed to the APS Registrar, and must contain the names of the requested item(s), reasoning for the request, exhibit dates, and requested loan period.
• The loan agreement for incoming items will be revised and finalized through the steps described below, with a loan memo appended by the APS. 

Loan Request Review Process

Loan approval requires many steps before the loan agreement is signed. Loan review is not complete until all of the following steps have been completed successfully, and both the curator(s) for the materials and the Head of Conservation have approved the loan.

• The Library Director or other designated administrators review the formal request letter for preliminary approval.
• Conservation staff review the General Facility Report and ask for any needed clarification through the APS Registrar.
• The condition of items requested for loan will be reviewed by the registrar, conservation staff, and APS Library & Museum curators, who will assess their availability during the loan period, physical and chemical stability, vulnerability to light exposure and handling, the duration of the loan, etc. 
• Materials originating from Native American communities may require additional review and approval from the curator of Native American materials and the Indigenous communities from which the materials originated. Permit additional time for this process.
• Materials appraised at $10,000 or more require additional approval from the APS Collections Committee.
• APS collections staff will provide a loan agreement addendum stipulating the APS’s requirements for the loan, which may include any of the costs outlined below.

Requirements for Borrowers

Borrowers must cover all of the following costs associated with the loan:

• Appraisal of the requested items for insurance purposes. (Items that are valued at $10,000 or higher must be approved for loan by the APS Collections Committee.)
• The borrower must provide evidence of wall-to-wall insurance coverage for the requested item(s), in line with their appraised value. A certificate of insurance is required before the items requested for loan may leave the APS.
• Any needed conservation treatment of the requested items, whether performed at the APS or by an outside vendor (typically the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, or CCAHA). An estimate for this work will be provided prior to treatment. Conservation treatment work done at the APS will be billed at $150/hour.
• Any mounting and framing costs associated with preparing the item(s) for exhibition.
• All transportation and courier costs associated with loan delivery/installation and de-installation/pickup.
• The APS reserves the right to charge a loan fee of up to $250 per item.

“The result is not curing a disease, it’s having an advance in our knowledge.”

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Martin Chalfie shares the story of how, by building on another scientist’s findings, they both went on to win the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “Useful knowledge” is at the core of the APS, but Chalfie argues for the utility of “useless knowledge.” Some discoveries push us forward by nature of their innovation, but others are useful in the way they inform and influence future scientists. Chalfie insists that scientists should always be concerned with the future implications of their work, and ought to focus on expanding our collective knowledge. In this way, knowledge that might initially seem “useless” is ultimately quite useful.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.   

Martin Chalfie, University Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his introduction of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a biological marker.

As a postdoctoral fellow, Martin Chalfie with John Sulston established the first genetic model for mechanosensation using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. He and his lab subsequently used molecular, genetic, and electrophysiological means to study neuronal specification, differentiation, outgrowth, and degeneration, microtubule structure and function, and mechanosensory transduction and its modulation in C. elegans.

Dr. Chalfie is a past president of the Society for Developmental Biology and of the American Society for Cell Biology. A member of the US National Academies of Sciences and of Medicine and a foreign member of the Royal Society, he chairs the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) have had a huge impact on the world of academic research and writing. These tools may provide new methods of scholarly analysis, but they must not affect the core practices that book and journal authors, peer reviewers, editors, and other publishing colleagues collectively participate in–namely, writing and reviewing.

• The APS Press will not publish work whose arguments or style have been affected by the use of LLMs or generative AI. For the purposes of the APS Press, generative AI is that which is transformative to the author’s argument, intent, prose style, and/or research, whether this involves creation of new material or comparison, analysis, or summarization of the same. Authors may not appropriate content from AI sources to formulate their argument or research question, or to change their writing style. 
• Book authors and journal contributors must explicitly acknowledge and disclose their use of artificial intelligence tools such as Large Language Models (LLMs) or generative AI tools to their acquiring or managing editors at the outset of their relationship with the Press. 
• Acceptable uses may include, but are not limited to, the synthesis or organization of large data sets, checking grammar (not adjusting style), bibliographic searches, or formatting citations, but every author must disclose any use of AI tools to their editor. The APS Press Staff will decide if the disclosed usage is acceptable. If the use is deemed acceptable, use of the tool must be acknowledged within the manuscript (see guidance for generative AI sources from MLA and Chicago). Further, any use of this technology for transcription, textual or numerical analysis, visual comparison, or any other element of a submitted manuscript must be disclosed and discussed as part of the book or article’s methodology. 
• AI tools do not meet legal criteria for authorship; only human authors can hold copyright and enter publishing agreements. Therefore, no APS Press publication—book or journal—accepts work written by generative AI.  
• Book authors and journal contributors are fully responsible for their work, including their use of AI tools. Authors and contributors should carefully review the terms and conditions of any AI tools they use; use of these tools means the author must accept responsibility for those terms, which could compromise the author’s intellectual property rights and undermine copyright protections. 
• Peer reviewers of books or journal articles are not permitted to feed content into any Large Language Model (LLM) or similar tools (e.g., ChatGPT); this has the potential to be a serious violation of the author’s intellectual property rights. Peer reviewers may not use any generative AI tool to create their peer review. 

• AI tools may not be used for extended translations, but authors should check with their editors and acknowledge the use when relying heavily on AI for any translations. Translations of whole works written in another language that are created by generative AI will not be accepted for publication.  

  Failure to disclose the use of any generative AI or LLM technology in the writing of the book will result in a rejection of the manuscript at any stage of the editorial process.
   

Available for sale: The Re-Declaration Project print, issued in a limited edition of 250 copies

 

As a part of our current exhibition, These Truths: The Declarations of Independence, the APS engaged with APS Member, book artist, and cultural critic Johanna Drucker to create a response to the ideas presented in the exhibition. She produced a limited edition print, The Re-Declaration Project, which incorporated the typefaces and visual cues used in past Declarations while interrupting the text with her own edits. In her version, Drucker critiques the promises of equality, freedom, and justice, which remain unfulfilled for many, including women, the dispossessed, and a dying planet. For display in the exhibition, she added a border of hand-drawn frame.

Her Artist Statement:

Respect for the importance of the Declaration of Independence and recognition of the courage and vision of its authors have guided my approach to this project. 

I drew on several source documents in this design. The printed broadside combines John Dunlap’s 1776 iconic single column format familiar with Mary Katharine Goddard’s 1777 two column design and the hand-drawn frame is inspired by John Binns’s engraving, printed in 1819. The frame drawing has been updated to include the seals of all fifty states as well as a few contemporary elements. The broadside is printed in a version of the Caslon typeface used by both Dunlap and Goddard. Designed by the British type founder William Caslon a decade earlier, this robust and versatile typeface was widely used in the Colonies as well as in England. Goddard’s broadside included the ornamental rule like that used here, while Dunlap’s print was without decoration. The layout is meant to invoke the familiar Dunlap document, printed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, and also call attention to printer and publisher Goddard’s contribution in Baltimore, a year later, 1777.

Almost the entire text of the Declaration appears in the broadside. The opening paragraphs are in 18 point type while the lines in 14 point type contain my version in which a few changes in vocabulary or phrasing make the language more contemporary. Shifts in vocabulary or word order are indicated by (phrases in parentheses) while edits to the text are indicated by the presence of blank       spaces.

Throughout, the language of the original text has been preserved with only minor alterations or omissions. The alterations in my text were made to preserve the abiding spirit of the original Declaration as a founding document for our nation by removing the historically specific references. Shifting the focus from particulars to principles emphasizes the ongoing relevance of the Declaration across time and into the present.

This limited edition print is now for sale for $350 (includes shipping within the US). To purchase or for more information, please contact [email protected].

Proceeds support the APS.