Audio
essay
The ancient world
Wanderlust of the ancients
The Roman Empire enabled an early version of globalisation that offered travellers adventure, novelty and opportunity
Fabio Fernandes
essay
Beauty and aesthetics
Attuned to the aesthetic
The ultimate value of the world can be discovered if you are sensitive to what is beautiful
Tom Cochrane
essay
Space exploration
Telescopes on the Moon
Our future in space relies on settling the Moon and using it as a base to probe the deepest questions in the cosmos
Joseph Silk
essay
Religion
Blue-eyed Buddhist
The story of a working-class radical from Ireland who became a celebrated monk and challenged the British Empire in Asia
Laurence Cox
essay
Human rights and justice
Exhuming the truth
Thousands of victims of political executions lie in anonymous graves. Forensics offers hope for the ‘forgotten’ ones
Nicole Iturriaga
essay
Animals and humans
Happy the person
She has deep emotions, complex social needs and a large, elephant brain. Her legal personhood should be recognised too
Lori Marino
essay
Biology
A touch of moss
Inside a rainforest or on the city pavement, moss asks so little yet offers so much: a tactile encounter with time itself
Nikita Arora
essay
History
Freedom from liquor
Ken Burns’s account of prohibition tells a popular story of booze in America. The historical record is far more sobering
Mark Lawrence Schrad
essay
Knowledge
A sliver of reality
Science and mathematics may never fully capture the physical universe. Are there hard limits to human intelligence?
David H Wolpert
essay
Evolution
What on earth is a xenobot?
The more we understand how cells produce shape and form, the more inadequate the idea of a genomic blueprint looks
Philip Ball
essay
Human rights and justice
Abolish life sentences
It is unjust, cruel and profoundly wasteful to consign a person to prison for life. A decent society must not do it
Judith Lichtenberg
essay
Cities
Living closer together
Urban density was once seen as a sign of unhealthiness and poverty. But today it is necessary to make cities sustainable
Max Holleran