Essays
essay
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Meaning and the good life
The meanings of life
Happiness is not the same as a sense of meaning. How do we go about finding a meaningful life, not just a happy one?
Roy F Baumeister
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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
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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