How we came to represent (through inky marks) the vagaries of the mind, inflections of the voice, and intensity of feeling
essay
Quantum theory
Quantum Wittgenstein
Metaphysical debates in quantum physics don’t get at ‘truth’ – they’re nothing but a form of ritual, activity and culture
Timothy Andersen
essay
Love and friendship
Tainted love
Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands
Anna Machin
essay
Thinkers and theories
Since Derrida
A golden generation of French philosophers dismantled truth and other traditional ideas. What next for their successors?
Peter Salmon
essay
Virtues and vices
Look on the dark side
We must keep the flame of pessimism burning: it is a virtue for our deeply troubled times, when crude optimism is a vice
Mara van der Lugt
essay
Stories and literature
Aristotle goes to Hollywood
Today, the ancient Greek storyteller would be winning Oscars. To learn how, turn to the Poetics, his masterwork on writing
Philip Freeman
video
Art
Grotesque imagery meets religious conservatism in Hieronymus Bosch’s art
51 minutes
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
Bad therapy
Some psychotherapeutic approaches are not only ineffective, they’re actively harmful. We’re now starting to identify them
Yevgeny Botanov, Alexander Williams & John Sakaluk
video
Architecture
Why a sculptor pivoted from gallery installations to big-box stores design
9 minutes
video
Physics
Spectacular fractal patterns emerge when electricity meets a wooden surface
4 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
Philosopher of the apocalypse
From the ashes of the Second World War, Günther Anders forecast a new catastrophe: technology would overwhelm its creators
Audrey Borowski
video
Mathematics
How a verbal paradox shattered the notion of total certainty in mathematics
5 minutes
essay
Earth science and climate
A new Earth rises
How did the planet replace the nation-state to become the prime political object of the 21st century?
Erik Isberg
essay
Mood and emotion
When hope gets in the way
Hope is usually seen as a positive agent of change that spares us from pain. But it can also undermine healing and growth
Santiago Delboy
video
Wellbeing
A tender poem doubles as a guide to sitting comfortably in one’s own company
3 minutes
essay
Quantum theory
Quantum Wittgenstein
Metaphysical debates in quantum physics don’t get at ‘truth’ – they’re nothing but a form of ritual, activity and culture
Timothy Andersen
video
Values and beliefs
How a God-fearing Jewish woman found atheism – and bacon – in her later years
9 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
Breakfast with the Panthers
It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California
Suzanne Cope
video
War and peace
Before he leaves to go to war, Artem, 18, says goodbye to the man who raised him
12 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
Since Derrida
A golden generation of French philosophers dismantled truth and other traditional ideas. What next for their successors?
Peter Salmon
video
Art
A mindbending trip that summons the forgotten women of surrealism
17 minutes
essay
Animals and humans
Against human exceptionalism
In a tight spot, you’d probably intuit that a human life outweighs an animal’s. There are good arguments why that’s wrong
Jeff Sebo
video
Metaphysics
To see the Universe more clearly, think in terms of processes, not objects
6 minutes
essay
Cities
Energised crowding
To understand why early cities thrived, look not to the temples of kings but to their subjects’ bustling neighbourhoods
Michael E Smith
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
How machine learning can help historians decode ancient inscriptions
7 minutes
essay
Poverty and development
A fairly fed world
Last year, 200 million children did not get enough to eat, yet it would be cheap and easy for the world to feed them all
Sharman Apt Russell
essay
Love and friendship
Tainted love
Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands
Anna Machin
video
Animals and humans
What the ancient city of Kars looks like from the perspective of its stray dogs
9 minutes
essay
Biology
The split-body problem
Why we need to stop thinking about parents, offspring and sex when we try to understand how life reproduces itself
Gunnar O Babcock