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Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

​

Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

essay

Language and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

Popular this month

A person in a hi-vis vest sitting outdoors at a table with a drink, looking into the distance.

essay

Technology and the self

The unseen

Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being

Allison J Pugh

Cropped illustration of a person in a pink robe with orange patterns walking beside a horse, surrounded by grass and flowers.

essay

Gender

Taliban bride

Women in Afghanistan are prisoners in their own homes. This is the story of Marjan, married at 12 to a Taliban fighter

Zala & Asad Nariman

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting at a kitchen table appearing deep in thought or conversation.

essay

Virtues and vices

Awkward silences

What is it about lulls in conversation that make them so very uncomfortable? It has to do with how we connect with each other

Rebecca Roache

Photo of a busy street corner with people gathering outside a cafe named Dante in a city setting on a cloudy day.

essay

Neurodiversity

Rethinking adult ADHD

The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed

Margaret Sibley

A man in a blue shirt playing a saxophone against a dark background.

essay

Consciousness and altered states

Kind of confusing

Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?

Tim Bayne

Photo of a woman in a red coat gazing out a foggy window with a contemplative expression.

video

Progress and modernity

Moving from Tibet to Beijing, Drolma reconciles big dreams with harsh realities

31 minutes

A hospital room with a patient in a gown and headscarf speaking to a doctor, while a man stands nearby taking notes.

essay

Illness and disease

The power of the ‘C’ word

Saying the word ‘cancer’ changes a person’s life and can lead to overtreatment and fear. Is the word too hot to use at all?

Benjamin Chin-Yee

Illustration of an ancient Greek temple with the golden ratio spiral overlay, featuring bright colours and clear skies.

video

Mathematics

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

4 minutes

Vintage photo of people erecting tall structures in a tropical setting with palm trees and a thatched building.

video

Art

A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea

7 minutes

Black and white photo of Adolf Hitler greeting two clergymen surrounded by a crowd in front of a Gothic building.

essay

Religion

An unholy alliance

In the 1930s, the rise of Nazism brought centuries of animosity between Europe’s Catholics and Protestants to an end. Why?

Udi Greenberg

Yellow slime mould on textured tree bark, showcasing intricate branching patterns.

essay

Biology

Memories without brains

Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?

Matthew Sims

3D rendering of an ancient water clock with zodiac signs and blue water flowing into a container on a wooden surface.

video

Engineering

How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time

10 minutes

An elderly person lying in a hospital bed in a bright room with a walker and a window nearby.

essay

Death

Freedom over death

Death is a certainty. But choosing how and when we depart is a modest opportunity for freedom – and dignity

Michael Cholbi

Photo of a man lying on a bed with white sheets, looking peaceful against a blue background.

video

Consciousness and altered states

What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?

12 minutes

Painting of blind men with sticks leading one another, one has fallen, landscape and church in the background.

essay

Thinkers and theories

The French liar

René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?

Sandrine Parageau

Black and white photo of a woman sitting in front of a bookshelf wearing a light blouse and speaking.

video

Anthropology

Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film

29 minutes

A large white cathedral with golden domes near a river, surrounded by trees with autumn colours.

essay

Architecture

The replica and the original

Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?

Elizabeth Kostina

Illustration of a crab using a laptop, captioned “Homo-crustaceous digitalis” on a textured background.

essay

The future

Homo crustaceous

‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology

Michael Garfield

Aerial photo of workers harvesting oranges, loading crates onto a tractor in an orchard.

video

Demography and migration

In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope

17 minutes

Photo of a rustic stone house with a shaded garden path lined with lush greenery and flowering plants under a clear blue sky.

essay

History of ideas

From scattered traces

How the ideas circulating among one noblewoman’s coterie in 16th-century Dubrovnik anticipated modern feminist thought

Luka Boršić

Blurry photo of a townscape with unfocused colourful lights strung across buildings in the evening.

video

Ageing and death

Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England

11 minutes

Photo of a busy street corner with people gathering outside a cafe named Dante in a city setting on a cloudy day.

essay

Neurodiversity

Rethinking adult ADHD

The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed

Margaret Sibley

Illustration of two turquoise beams pointing from the Milky Way galaxy toward another galaxy on a black background.

video

History of science

How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain

26 minutes

Photo of ornate 18th-century women’s shoes with floral embroidery and green trim on a neutral background.

essay

Design and fashion

Walk in these

Shoes are deeply personal, literally moulded to our lives. But they create our social lives as much as express them

Matthew McCormack

Black and white photo of a group of men playing musical instruments and sitting in a wooden room.

essay

Music

The beat of goombay

Diasporas are made of vast constellations of countless people, fused together through memory, meaning – and music

Salwa Halloway

Satellite image of South Dakota with glowing yellow lines representing data or energy pathways overlaid.

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America

6 minutes

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting at a kitchen table appearing deep in thought or conversation.

essay

Virtues and vices

Awkward silences

What is it about lulls in conversation that make them so very uncomfortable? It has to do with how we connect with each other

Rebecca Roache

Photo of a man with glasses and grey hair in a suit speaking animatedly against a dark background.

video

Knowledge

Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy

10 minutes