essay
Stories and literature
Our narrative prison
The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?
Eliane Glaser
essay
Physics
The cat that wouldn’t die
The weird paradox of Schrödinger’s cat has found a lasting popularity. What does it mean for the future of quantum physics?
Jim Baggott
essay
Thinkers and theories
The truth about love
In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates shared a theory of love from the teachings of a ‘non-Athenian woman’. Who was she really?
Armand D’Angour
essay
Death
The last letter
Condemned to death by firing squad, French resistance fighters put pen to paper. Their dying words can teach us how to live
Daniel R Brunstetter
essay
Neuroscience
The entangled brain
The brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony
Luiz Pessoa
video
Personality
A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law
5 minutes
essay
Illness and disease
Permission to be ill
It took months for my functional neurological disorder to finally be diagnosed. It’s a condition that must be recognised
Kevin Aho
video
Oceans and water
A stunning visualisation explores the intricate circulatory system of our oceans
5 minutes
essay
Cities
Cars beneath the ground
The explosion of automobiles shaped cities and lives. But an enduring problem remains: where to put them when they’re parked
Alfie Robinson
video
Social psychology
What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus
18 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Our narrative prison
The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?
Eliane Glaser
video
Gender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
essay
Religion
Demonology
By turns benign and malign, powerful and vulnerable, earthbound and aerial, daimons across the world resemble one another
David Gordon White
essay
Philosophy of language
Extraterrestrial tongues
Imagining how aliens might communicate prepares us for first contact and illuminates the nature of our own languages
Nikhil Mahant
video
Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
essay
Art
The ecstatic swoon
As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead
Robert D Zaretsky
video
Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
essay
Demography and migration
The vanishing of youth
The precipitous decline of birthrates throughout the world poses a serious threat to humanity. What is to be done?
Victor Kumar
video
Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
essay
Global history
Vikings on the Silk Roads
The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East
Neil Price
essay
Information and communication
Methodical banality
Like today’s large language models, 16th-century humanists had techniques to automate writing – to the detriment of novelty
Hannah Katznelson
video
Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
video
History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
Struggling to wake
After a murderous kidnapping in Nigeria, I launched a campaign to put a stop to the abductions. Why did no one listen?
Ayisha Osori
video
Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
essay
Physics
The cat that wouldn’t die
The weird paradox of Schrödinger’s cat has found a lasting popularity. What does it mean for the future of quantum physics?
Jim Baggott
essay
Cosmology
Just a pale blue dot
When we see the Earth as ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’ what do we learn about human significance?
Tim Bayne
video
Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes