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Essays

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Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture

Illustration of interconnected neurons with red, spiky dendrites on a blurred orange background.

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Neuroscience

The empty brain

Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer

Robert Epstein

Medieval painting depicting a battle scene with knights on horseback wearing armour and helmets against a colourful backdrop.

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Language and linguistics

English is not normal

No, English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language

John McWhorter

An empty room with a chair against a wall on the right, scrunched paper on the floor by a bin, and electrical sockets on the wall.

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Work

Fuck work

Economists believe in full employment. Americans think that work builds character. But what if jobs aren’t working anymore?

James Livingston

A person stands with arms crossed, looking into the distance on a dune in a vast, foggy desert. The image is in black and white.

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Meaning and the good life

Indifference is a power

As legions of warriors and prisoners can attest, Stoicism is not grim resolve but a way to wrest happiness from adversity

Lary Wallace

Two children playing with a dog in a green field with yellow flowers, a goalpost and a yellow field in the background.

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Childhood and adolescence

The play deficit

Children today are cossetted and pressured in equal measure. Without the freedom to play they will never grow up

Peter Gray

Abstract close-up view of human skin folds lit with warm lighting. The background is dark, highlighting the textures.

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Biology

The obesity era

As the American people got fatter, so did marmosets, vervet monkeys and mice. The problem may be bigger than any of us

David Berreby

A scanning electron microscope image showing pollen tubes in vivid pink growing from pollen grains of cucumber on the stigma.

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Human reproduction

The macho sperm myth

The idea that millions of sperm are on an Olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy of human reproduction

Robert D Martin

A man lying on a blue mat on grass with a book covering his face, hands clasped, shoes beside him.

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Consciousness and altered states

Night school

New evidence suggests that we can learn while we sleep, but do we really want to put our hours of rest to work?

Kenneth Miller

A large group of people in bikinis and swimwear, body-painted in bright colours, posing and flexing muscles outdoors.

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Gender and identity

Gender is not a spectrum

The idea that ‘gender is a spectrum’ is supposed to set us free. But it is both illogical and politically troubling

Rebecca Reilly-Cooper

Illustration of an astronaut in an orange spacesuit running on a red-orange alien planet with a blue trail beneath him.

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Cosmology

Exodus

Elon Musk argues that we must put a million people on Mars if we are to ensure that humanity has a future

Ross Andersen

A child in a pink top and striped leggings sitting on the floor picking up pieces of a broken white plate with bare feet.

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Childhood and adolescence

Childhood, disrupted

Adversity in childhood can create long-lasting scars, damaging our cells and our DNA, and making us sick as adults

Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Close-up photo of a woman’s freckled face focusing on green eyes and blonde hair strands.

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Philosophy of mind

The problem of mindfulness

Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos

Sahanika Ratnayake