Essays
essay
Biology
Living orbs of light
Solving the mystery of how and why fireflies flash in time can illuminate the physics of complex systems
Orit Peleg
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Political philosophy
What is ‘the West’?
While the West belonged to a European geography, its name meant something. Now it is a vague invocation, laden with fear
Faisal Devji
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Sleep and dreams
Why do we sleep?
Adults sleep less than babies. Sperm whales sleep less again. A new mathematical theory unlocks the mysteries of slumber
Van Savage & Geoffrey West
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Education
Sex on the curriculum
Sex education is a battlefield over morals and young bodies, and has exposed fractures in American life for over a century
Kristy Slominski
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Evolution
What animals think of death
Having a concept of death, far from being a uniquely human feat, is a fairly common trait in the animal kingdom
Susana Monsó
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Thinkers and theories
Germany’s Wollstonecraft
Brilliant and fierce, the philosopher and educator Amalia Holst demonstrated how the German Enlightenment failed women
Andrew Cooper
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Music
Maestro of more than music
Look beneath the surface of Bach’s music and you will find a fascinating hidden world of numerology and cunning craft
Milton Mermikides
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Stories and literature
The cliché writes back
Machine-written literature might offend your tastes but until the dawn of Romanticism most writers were just as formulaic
Yohei Igarashi
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Gender
Queer and Arab
Was there no room for the queer individual in Arab history? Have people like us simply never belonged?
Aya Labanieh
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Food and drink
The food wars
Vitamins or whole foods; high-fat or low-fat; sugar or sweetener. Will we ever get a clear idea about what we should eat?
Amos Zeeberg
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Education
Jefferson’s university
Thomas Jefferson founded a university believing it would safeguard republican freedom. Slavery was another matter altogether
Alan Taylor
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Genetics
An idea with bite
The ‘selfish gene’ persists for the reason all good scientific metaphors do: it remains a sharp tool for clear thinking
J Arvid Ågren