Most Popular
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
essay
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
essay
Work
Fuck work
Economists believe in full employment. Americans think that work builds character. But what if jobs aren’t working anymore?
James Livingston
essay
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
essay
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
essay
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
Videos
video
Biology
Watch a single cell become a complete organism in six pulsing minutes of timelapse
6 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
This is the final resting place of your cast-off clothing
14 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus
4 minutes
video
Demography and migration
How we became more than 7 billion – humanity’s population explosion, visualised
6 minutes
video
The ancient world
From eruption to obliteration – the sights and sounds of 48 fateful hours in Pompeii
9 minutes
video
Death
In 2009, a man arrived in an Irish town with a plan to disappear forever
19 minutes
Ideas
idea
Physics
Why we can stop worrying and love the particle accelerator
Joel Frohlich
idea
Economics
Conspicuous consumption is over. It’s all about intangibles now
Elizabeth Currid-Halkett
idea
Cognition and intelligence
What know-it-alls don’t know, or the illusion of competence
Kate Fehlhaber
idea
Social psychology
A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you
Clifton Mark
idea
Medicine
Gentle medicine could radically transform medical practice
Jacob Stegenga
idea
Medicine
Lifestyle changes, not a magic pill, can reverse Alzheimer’s
Clayton Dalton