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Essays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Videos

Close-up of a yellowish amphibian embryo with black markings inside a transparent egg, on a dark background.

video

Biology

Watch a single cell become a complete organism in six pulsing minutes of timelapse

6 minutes

A woman in a yellow saree standing among large piles of colourful clothes outdoors, with trees in the background.

video

Beauty and aesthetics

This is the final resting place of your cast-off clothing

14 minutes

Man in a blue shirt and cap playing a cello in a forest setting.

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus

4 minutes

Digital artwork of an ancient Roman town, red roofs and columns, with Mount Vesuvius erupting in the background under a cloudy sky.

video

The ancient world

From eruption to obliteration – the sights and sounds of 48 fateful hours in Pompeii

9 minutes

A map illustrating global human population distribution (1.2 billion) over time with significant historical events, created as an infographic.

video

Demography and migration

How we became more than 7 billion – humanity’s population explosion, visualised

6 minutes

A CCTV image showing a man walking in a lobby area with double wooden doors, a signboard, a plant and seating visible.

video

Death

In 2009, a man arrived in an Irish town with a plan to disappear forever

19 minutes

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Ideas

A brightly lit circular structure with red, orange and blue elements, resembling part of a scientific or industrial machine.

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Physics

Why we can stop worrying and love the particle accelerator

Joel Frohlich

A woman sitting on stairs with a designer handbag and gold trainers, wearing black leggings and a colourful jumper.

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Economics

Conspicuous consumption is over. It’s all about intangibles now

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett

Black and white photo of two vintage cars on a rural road, lined with trees and grass, with two people walking in the distance.

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Cognition and intelligence

What know-it-alls don’t know, or the illusion of competence

Kate Fehlhaber

A painting of five labourers working on a construction site with tools and machinery, while a scenic landscape is seen in the background.

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Social psychology

A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you

Clifton Mark

A person in a lab coat holding multiple vials and labelled containers with blue gloved hands in a laboratory setting.

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Medicine

Gentle medicine could radically transform medical practice

Jacob Stegenga

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War and peace

What did Hannah Arendt really mean by the banality of evil?

Thomas White

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