Science
essay
Metaphysics
Reality is evil
Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed. It is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe
Drew M Dalton
essay
Progress and modernity
Authenticate thyself
Data has created a new and paradoxical social order: the promise of emancipation is made possible by classifying everything
Marion Fourcade & Kieran Healy
essay
Palaeontology
Life happened fast
It’s time to rethink how we study life’s origins. It emerged far earlier, and far quicker, than we once thought possible
Michael Marshall
video
Mathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes
essay
Ethics
The incompleteness of ethics
Many hope that AI will discover ethical truths. But as Gödel shows, deciding what is right will always be our burden
Elad Uzan
video
History of science
Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful
8 minutes
essay
Animals and humans
To build a nest
Throughout the animal kingdom, the parents of newborns must strive to create snug sanctuaries in a hazardous world
Helen Jukes
video
Music
A riveting audiovisual dive into what makes sounds harmonious, or not
28 minutes
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
Medicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 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
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
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
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
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
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
video
History of science
How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain
26 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
essay
History of science
Injury and inhibition
The misunderstood story of Phineas Gage shows that we need a new way of understanding the experiences of brain injury survivors
Ben Platts-Mills
essay
Stories and literature
Merveilleux-scientifique
With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago
Fleur Hopkins-Loféron