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Ant geopolitics

Over the past four centuries quadrillions of ants have created a strange and turbulent global society that shadows our own

Close-up of several reddish-brown ants on soil, with one carrying small white eggs. The background is blurry, focusing attention on the ants.

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Animals and humans

Ant geopolitics

John Whitfield

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Tiny planet photo of a snowy mountain under a starry sky and Milky Way galaxy with glowing horizon.

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Cosmology

Exploding the Big Bang

It was thought that science could tell us about the origins of the Universe. Today that great endeavour is in serious doubt

Daniel Linford

Abstract photo of tree branches with a dreamy overlay of yellow and blue light creating a soft, ethereal effect.

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Metaphysics

Many worlds, many selves

If it’s true that we live in a vast multiverse, then our understanding of identity, morality and even God must be reexamined

Emily Qureshi-Hurst

Photo of Daniel Dennett looking to the side with a white beard and glasses wearing a suit against a black background.

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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

Hand-drawn diagram titled “Free-Form Discrete H’Texts” showing a map with two-way links and a flowchart with one-way links.

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Future of technology

A linkless internet

In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum

Collin Jennings

Painting of a historic city square with a tall clock tower, statues, carriages, and groups of people in period clothing.

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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

Abstract black-and-white image featuring a spherical shape at the centre surrounded by an intricate web of swirling, crisscrossing lines, creating a three-dimensional effect. The background is dark, enhancing the contrast and emphasising the white lines and central sphere.

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Physics

Imagining spacetime as a visible grid is an extraordinary journey into the unseen

12 minutes

Digital artwork of a forest inside a circular frame with geometric lines, displayed against a black background.

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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

Illustration of two people observing ants on a forest floor with a textured tree background.

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Family life

One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor

10 minutes

A beach with a white S U V, chairs and a bird in the foreground, and a rocket on a launch pad in the background.

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Fairness and equality

Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches

14 minutes

Photo of a dark, rugged rock formation emerging from blurred ocean waves under a cloudy sky.

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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

Close-up photo of a textured surface with vibrant purple, orange and blue abstract patterns.

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Film and visual culture

Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen

8 minutes

Vintage black-and-white photo of a colonial-era courtroom with seated officials and standing West African defendants in traditional attire.

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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

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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

Black and white photo of British and German First World War soldiers wearing winter uniforms and hats, one with a cigarette, looking at the camera.

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War and peace

A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914

12 minutes

Ancient fresco showing two figures in flowing robes dancing against a dark blue background, one holding a tambourine.

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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

Cartoon of three surgeons wearing scrubs and masks performing surgery on a patient, with surgical lights overhead.

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Bioethics

What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’

6 minutes

Black and white photo of a large group of boys and a few adults standing on bare ground, all dressed in 1960s attire.

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Education

A valiant experiment

The progressive and remarkably innovative Woodmead School briefly flourished amid the viciousness of apartheid South Africa

David Dyzenhaus

A photo of a printshop workbench featuring a newspaper layout, metal type blocks, and tools.

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History of technology

Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy

19 minutes

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Cosmology

Exploding the Big Bang

It was thought that science could tell us about the origins of the Universe. Today that great endeavour is in serious doubt

Daniel Linford

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Future of technology

A linkless internet

In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum

Collin Jennings

A man with a long beard wearing glasses holding a net against a backdrop of a grassy field and cloudy sky.

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Animals and humans

The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net

10 minutes

Black and white photo of cars in traffic on a multi-lane motorway seen from above.

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Political philosophy

The order of anarchy

How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory and the work of the late, great James C Scott

Reyko Huang

A woman on a sofa injecting her abdomen surrounded by stuffed toys on a shelf.

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Technology and the self

Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California

24 minutes

Coastal erosion showing a collapsed road beside the sea with houses nearby, a person walking a dog on the beach.

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Home

How to lose your home

In a changing climate, the instinct is to save everything you can. But maybe letting go is braver – and better for the future?

Dan Hancox

Abstract painting with geometric shapes, lines and circles in various colours on a beige background.

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Beauty and aesthetics

Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art

10 minutes

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit holding a mug, sitting next to a chimpanzee in an enclosure.

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Human evolution

The eugenicist of UNESCO

Why did Julian S Huxley, first director of the UN agency, think eugenics held the key to a more evolved, harmonious world?

Stefan Bernhardt-Radu

Black and white photo of three people seated at an outdoor café table.

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Political philosophy

The underground university

During the Cold War, Oxford philosophers worked together to aid dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. I was one of them

Cheryl Misak

Painting of Roman soldiers in red carrying shields, forming a testudo (tortoise) formation during battle, viewed from the side.

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The ancient world

Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier

18 minutes