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People collecting water from a makeshift station in a camp, surrounded by orange netting and tents in the background.

Moral refuge

You can believe in border control yet protect those fleeing to safety. So what is our ethical obligation to refugees?

A murmuration of starlings forming a large, swirling shape in the early evening sky above silhouetted trees.

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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

Clay animation of a person pondering at a table with a drink can, against a dark background.

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Personality

A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law

5 minutes

A silhouetted figure sitting on a chair behind frosted glass partitions in a waiting room with overhead lights.

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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

Satellite image showing swirling ocean currents in vivid colours off the east coast of the US.

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Oceans and water

A stunning visualisation explores the intricate circulatory system of our oceans

5 minutes

A colourful underground car park with numbered pillars and painted lanes with directional arrows.

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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

Photo of three people stacking hay bales under a cloudy sky with a pink sunset.

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Social psychology

What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus

18 minutes

Abstract digital collage with classical statue overlayed by red lines, geometric shapes and layered images on a textured background.

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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

Fisheye photo of a man in a suit leaning close to camera in a laundrette, with two people talking in the background.

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Gender

A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry

5 minutes

Ancient Chinese painting of a man under a tree with a trail of smoke coming from his mouth containing scenes of various figures, surrounded by miniature figures.

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Religion

Demonology

By turns benign and malign, powerful and vulnerable, earthbound and aerial, daimons across the world resemble one another

David Gordon White

A man looking up from the driver’s seat of a yellow vehicle with an open window and side mirror visible.

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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

3D digital rendering of a cross-section of a Roman amphitheatre, showing architectural details and a large crowd inside.

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Architecture

A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power

17 minutes

Painting of a girl with a pearl earring in an ornate frame, viewed by three people in a gallery setting.

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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

Abstract image of a woman’s face with vivid swirls of blue, green, red and yellow on a black background.

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Human rights and justice

Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home

10 minutes

An elderly couple sit beside a child standing next to a canal with bare trees behind them. The man talks to the child and has a walking stick beside him.

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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

Photo of a black dog lying on a blue background with a purple button on its left and a yellow button on its right.

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Language and linguistics

Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?

9 minutes

Medieval painting of soldiers in armour on a boat and horseback near a fortress with Cyrillic script above.

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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

A satirical painting of a giant man being fed with spoons by tiny attendants.

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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

Black and white photo of a person in glasses and military attire standing in front of the Hollywood sign.

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Art

When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer

9 minutes

3D digital graphic of geometric shapes—cube, spheres and orbits—in space with a starry background.

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History of science

Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history

29 minutes

Photo of a woman in a white dress and purple headscarf leaning against a wall, covering her face near green foliage.

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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

Photo of a framed picture with colourful string art overlays, featuring plants in the foreground and other photos around.

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Values and beliefs

Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi

7 minutes

Abstract colourful illustration showing various sections of a face and a black cat with lines and geometric shapes, from the perspective of someone peeing into a box.

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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

Photo of deep space with a pale blue dot in the distance against a dark background, featuring faint light streaks.

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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

Digital artwork of a skull with holographic elements and text overlays on a dark background.

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Consciousness and altered states

‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality

7 minutes