video
Mathematics
Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths
4 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
The French liar
René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?
Sandrine Parageau
essay
Neurodiversity
Rethinking adult ADHD
The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed
Margaret Sibley
essay
Biology
Memories without brains
Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?
Matthew Sims
essay
Cosmology
Rivers of galaxies
What are the largest shapes in the Universe? The answer might be found in the most unassuming places here on Earth
Mark Neyrinck
video
Life stages
Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers
15 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
Knowledge and justice
Any legal system that fails to compensate people for epistemic harm is unjust. Their damage must be named and remedied
Mitch Woolery
video
Medicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint
15 minutes
essay
Animals and humans
Humanlike?
Interpreting the emotional lives of animals requires a subtler and more nuanced understanding of anthropomorphism
Mike Dacey
essay
Language and linguistics
The grammar of a god-ocean
To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness
Eli K P William
video
Progress and modernity
Moving from Tibet to Beijing, Drolma reconciles big dreams with harsh realities
31 minutes
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Kind of confusing
Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?
Tim Bayne
video
Mathematics
Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths
4 minutes
essay
Illness and disease
The power of the ‘C’ word
Saying the word ‘cancer’ changes a person’s life and can lead to overtreatment and fear. Is the word too hot to use at all?
Benjamin Chin-Yee
video
Art
A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea
7 minutes
essay
Religion
An unholy alliance
In the 1930s, the rise of Nazism brought centuries of animosity between Europe’s Catholics and Protestants to an end. Why?
Udi Greenberg
essay
Biology
Memories without brains
Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?
Matthew Sims
video
Engineering
How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time
10 minutes
essay
Death
Freedom over death
Death is a certainty. But choosing how and when we depart is a modest opportunity for freedom – and dignity
Michael Cholbi
video
Consciousness and altered states
What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
The French liar
René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?
Sandrine Parageau
video
Anthropology
Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film
29 minutes
essay
Architecture
The replica and the original
Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?
Elizabeth Kostina
essay
The future
Homo crustaceous
‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology
Michael Garfield
video
Demography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
essay
History of ideas
From scattered traces
How the ideas circulating among one noblewoman’s coterie in 16th-century Dubrovnik anticipated modern feminist thought
Luka Boršić
video
Ageing and death
Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England
11 minutes