essay
Cognition and intelligence
The power of prayer
Praying is a cognitive practice full of problem-solving resources. You can learn from it even if you don’t want to do it
Eleanor Schille-Hudson
essay
History
Why history is always political
In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting history is part of a robust civic life
Rosario López
essay
Deep time
Roaming rocks
Metamorphic rocks are our emissaries from the deep, travelling to alien realms and revealing the restless nature of Earth
Marcia Bjornerud
essay
Stories and literature
Laboratories of the impossible
By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics
Joshua Roebke
essay
Earth science and climate
The planetary fix
Despite decades of inaction we can avert the climate Hellocene and restore the atmosphere to keep our world habitable
Rob Jackson
video
Archaeology
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation
16 minutes
essay
Bioethics
Moral resilience
Nurses experience deep suffering when they can’t act according to their moral compass. Our research shows a way forward
Cynda Hylton Rushton
video
Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
essay
Global history
There are no pure cultures
All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history
Inanna Hamati-Ataya
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
essay
Cognition and intelligence
The power of prayer
Praying is a cognitive practice full of problem-solving resources. You can learn from it even if you don’t want to do it
Eleanor Schille-Hudson
video
Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes
essay
Philosophy of science
Aha = wow
We surveyed thousands of scientists in four countries and learned just how important beauty is to them
Bridget Ritz & Brandon Vaidyanathan
video
History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
essay
Art
Threads of resistance
Knitting and embroidery are laden with stereotypes of domestic femininity – and the subversive potential for protest
Gemma McKenzie
essay
History
Why history is always political
In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting history is part of a robust civic life
Rosario López
video
Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Laboratories of the impossible
By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics
Joshua Roebke
video
Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
essay
Deep time
Roaming rocks
Metamorphic rocks are our emissaries from the deep, travelling to alien realms and revealing the restless nature of Earth
Marcia Bjornerud
video
Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
What’s in the rule of law?
The British Empire used a great democratic ideal to manufacture racial difference and rationalise colonial domination
Kanika Sharma
essay
Philosophy of mind
The stories of Daniel Dennett
Often metaphorical and allusive, the philosopher’s work will long be remembered for how it grappled with everyday thought
Tim Bayne
video
War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes
essay
Dance and theatre
Why the old man dances
Religious ritual to appease the gods or free expression of human agency? For the ancient Romans, dance could be both
Karin Schlapbach
video
Bioethics
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’
6 minutes
essay
Education
A valiant experiment
The progressive and remarkably innovative Woodmead School briefly flourished amid the viciousness of apartheid South Africa
David Dyzenhaus