Essay/ Art Is it really a Leonardo? Forensics can't be sure. Provenance can be fudged. This is why the expert eye still rules the game of art authentication Noah Charney
Essay/ Mood & Emotion The myth of ‘mad’ genius The Romantic stereotype that creativity is enhanced by a mood disorder is dangerous, and dissolves under careful scrutiny Christa L Taylor
Essay/ Cultures & Languages Black Achilles The Greeks didn’t have modern ideas of race. Did they see themselves as white, black – or as something else altogether? Tim Whitmarsh
Idea/ Love & Friendship Baby boomers are divorcing for surprisingly old-fashioned reasons Jocelyn Elise Crowley
Essay/ History The forgotten prophet Radical Quaker Benjamin Lay was a pioneer of abolitionism, who lived what he preached. So why was he erased from history? Marcus Rediker
Idea/ Gender & Sexuality The sexual origins of patriarchy and the radical power of love Paul A Kottman
Essay/ Work Utopia now In 1890 William Morris imagined a world free from wage slavery. Thanks to technology, his vision is finally within reach Vasilis Kostakis & Wolfgang Drechsler
Idea/ Meaning & the Good Life Philosophers should be keener to talk about the meaning of life Kieran Setiya
Essay/ Stories & Literature Communist robot dreams Tech flourished in communist Bulgaria and so did a body of science fiction asking vital philosophical questions Victor Petrov
Essay/ Values & Beliefs Human nature matters The only way to construct a robust philosophy for life is to have a clear and realistic picture of what makes humans tick Skye C Cleary & Massimo Pigliucci
Essay/ Mental Health Temperamentally blessed Just one in five people will be lucky enough to avoid mental health problems throughout their life. How do they do it? Elizabeth Svoboda
Essay/ Genetics Haunted by history War, famine and persecution inflict profound changes on bodies and brains. Could these changes persist over generations? Pam Weintraub
Essay/ Medical Research Viral rescue When antibiotics fail, could phage therapy succeed? The germ’s-eye view of infection might open up revolutionary treatments Emily Monosson
Essay/ Politics & Government Everyday politics Imperial Chinese conscription shows how ordinary people exercise influential political skills, even in a repressive state Michael Szonyi
Essay/ Knowledge Escape the echo chamber First you don’t hear other views. Then you can’t trust them. Your personal information network entraps you just like a cult C Thi Nguyen
Essay/ History of Science What is good science? Demanding that a theory is falsifiable or observable, without any subtlety, will hold science back. We need madcap ideas Adam Becker
Idea/ Computing & Artificial Intelligence Dungeons and Dragons, not chess and Go: why AI needs roleplay Beth Singler
Essay/ Law & Justice Facing time Behind bars in Texas, I saw masculinity in all its violence and vulnerability. Was this the war that men had primed me for? Steven Powers
Essay/ Future of Technology Fuelling the future Fantasies about new power sources for human ambitions go back a century or more. Could these past visions energise our own future? Iwan Rhys Morus
Idea/ Computing & Artificial Intelligence Does my algorithm have a mental-health problem? Thomas T Hills