Essays
essay
Stories and literature
On Jewish revenge
What might a people, subjected to unspeakable historical suffering, think about the ethics of vengeance once in power?
Shachar Pinsker
essay
Biology
Building embryos
For 3,000 years, humans have struggled to understand the embryo. Now there is a revolution underway
John Wallingford
essay
Design and fashion
Sitting on the art
Given its intimacy with the body and deep play on form and function, furniture is a ripely ambiguous artform of its own
Emma Crichton Miller
essay
Wellbeing
Learning to be happier
In order to help improve my students’ mental health, I offered a course on the science of happiness. It worked – but why?
Bruce Hood
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Acid media
How perforated squares of trippy blotter paper allowed outlaw chemists and wizard-alchemists to dose the world with LSD
Erik Davis
essay
Medicine
Last hours of an organ donor
In the liminal time when the brain is dead but organs are kept alive, there is an urgent tenderness to medical care
Ronald W Dworkin
essay
The environment
Decoupling
We need to find a way for human societies to prosper while the planet heals. So far we can’t even think clearly about it
Ville Lähde
essay
Archaeology
Why make art in the dark?
New research transports us back to the shadowy firelight of ancient caves, imagining the minds and feelings of the artists
Izzy Wisher
essay
Stories and literature
Do liberal arts liberate?
In Jack London’s novel, Martin Eden personifies debates still raging over the role and purpose of education in American life
Nick Romeo
essay
Politics and government
India and indigeneity
In a country of such extraordinary diversity, the UN definition of ‘indigenous’ does little more than fuel ethnic violence
Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati
essay
Astronomy
Alien life is no joke
Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific
Adam Frank
essay
History of ideas
Reimagining balance
In the Middle Ages, a new sense of balance fundamentally altered our understanding of nature and society
Joel Kaye