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Science

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science
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Physics

Why does the Sun occasionally flash green as it eclipses the horizon?

7 minutes

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essay

Oceans and water

Here’s to blue foods

With care for the social and ecological consequences, foods from the ocean should provide sustainable protein to billions

Madhura Rao

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essay

Oceans and water

Tomorrow’s corals

A warming planet and acid oceans will radically transform marine ecosystems. How will our beloved reefs survive?

Klaus M Stiefel & James D Reimer

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Biology

Like pop music, humpback whale songs spread, mutate, and fall out of fashion

9 minutes

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essay

Oceans and water

Defend the deep

Instead of letting waves of exploitation sweep through the deep ocean, we could choose to protect this vast living realm

Helen Scales

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Biology

Blend up a hydra, and its cells will coalesce back into a full creature. How?

5 minutes

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Oceans and water

They are prisoners

Captive orcas are tormented by boredom and family separation, but they cannot be simply released. What’s the solution?

Lori Marino

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video

Oceans and water

‘Natural souvenirs’ and ocean sounds form a sea-salty celebration of the shore

3 minutes

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Astronomy

Here be black holes

Like sea monsters on premodern maps, deep-space images are science’s fanciful means to chart the edges of the known world

Surekha Davies

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video

Oceans and water

See what no human eyes have seen before, deep in the sea off Western Australia

5 minutes

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Oceans and water

Who was Jack Tar?

He was a patriot and a prisoner, a delegate and a drunk; circling the globe when few Englishmen ever left their home counties

Stephen Taylor

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Evolution

When life is but a stream, insects need something extra-sticky to survive

4 minutes

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The environment

This is what climate change looks like: the social fissures of Cape Town’s water crisis

13 minutes

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Sports and games

Dances with whales: the ethereal underwater vistas of an elite freediving team

13 minutes

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The environment

When the monsoon goes away

The imperious monsoon rains have ruled India for centuries. Already unstable, what happens if they shift fundamentally?

Sunil Amrith

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video

Oceans and water

Not quite ashore – the in-between world of a cargo-ship rest stop

8 minutes

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Film and visual culture

A meditative cinepoem from 1929 captures the reflective, ethereal wonders of water

12 minutes

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Biology

Far from sluggish: the remarkable sea creature that weaponises its dinner

4 minutes

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Dance and theatre

Deep, free, elemental: a dance to celebrate women, in the world’s deepest diving pool

6 minutes

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essay

Astronomy

Our aquatic universe

We know that the Universe is awash with watery moons and planets. How can we pinpoint which of them could support life?

Tim Folger

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video

Nature and landscape

How the vast powers of the sea shape life on a sacred peninsula in Oaxaca, Mexico

21 minutes

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essay

Work

The last whalers

Men from the Shetland Islands worked the whaling expeditions to the Antarctic. Until the whales were gone

Lyndsie Bourgon

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video

War and peace

How the contours of fresh water help to shape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

5 minutes

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idea

Ecology and environmental sciences

Stop boycotting SeaWorld if you care about marine conservation

Samantha Muka