essay
Art
The ecstatic swoon
As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead
Robert D Zaretsky
essay
Demography and migration
The vanishing of youth
The precipitous decline of birthrates throughout the world poses a serious threat to humanity. What is to be done?
Victor Kumar
essay
Global history
Vikings on the Silk Roads
The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East
Neil Price
essay
Information and communication
Methodical banality
Like today’s large language models, 16th-century humanists had techniques to automate writing – to the detriment of novelty
Hannah Katznelson
essay
Human rights and justice
Struggling to wake
After a murderous kidnapping in Nigeria, I launched a campaign to put a stop to the abductions. Why did no one listen?
Ayisha Osori
essay
Physics
The cat that wouldn’t die
The weird paradox of Schrödinger’s cat has found a lasting popularity. What does it mean for the future of quantum physics?
Jim Baggott
essay
Cosmology
Just a pale blue dot
When we see the Earth as ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’ what do we learn about human significance?
Tim Bayne
essay
Philosophy of science
More-than-human science
When AI takes over the practice of science we will likely find the results strange and incomprehensible. Should we worry?
Brandon Boesch
essay
Thinkers and theories
The truth about love
In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates shared a theory of love from the teachings of a ‘non-Athenian woman’. Who was she really?
Armand D’Angour
essay
Death
The last letter
Condemned to death by firing squad, French resistance fighters put pen to paper. Their dying words can teach us how to live
Daniel R Brunstetter
essay
Space exploration
Have they been here?
When we look for extraterrestrials, we often peer into the depths of space. But alien life might be closer than you think
Ravi Kopparapu & Jacob Haqq Misra
essay
Meaning and the good life
Welcome to the Chaoscene
The climate crisis is here. In order to thrive in these dangerous and precarious times, we must build resilient communities
Rupert Read