Science

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science

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Black and white photo of a silhouette standing in calm water with distant hills and cloudy sky in the background.

essayComputing and artificial intelligence

Geist in the machine

As the 18th-century war between mechanism and romanticism returns, we face a new question: can we build artificial souls?

Peter Wolfendale

Old black and white photo of a smiling person on a boat with the sea in the background.

essayHistory of science

Unbounded

In the early 20th century, Emmy Noether’s mathematics transcended the physical world. She longed to do the same herself

Julia Ravanis

Photo of a person painting waveforms on clear film with a brush and ink beside audio equipment.

videoMusic

A dispatch from the dawn of the electronic music age

14 minutes

A passenger pigeon egg against a gradient background with a handwritten label in French detailing its origin.

essayBiology

Reversing extinction

Technologies of preserving and reviving organisms are already redefining the meaning of life, death, and extinction itself

Sadiah Qureshi

Photo of a man in a workshop illuminated by warm light, surrounded by tools with a focused expression.

videoWellbeing

One man’s poignant search for community via radio waves

13 minutes

Black and white photo of a chalkboard filled with complex mathematical equations and diagrams.

essayMathematics

The eye of the mathematician

Is mathematical beauty real? Or is it just a subjective, human ‘wow’ that is becoming redundant in an AI age?

Rita Ahmadi

Surgeons in blue attire performing an operation in a theatre, with medical tools visible.

essayBioethics

Savage care

Neat ethical principles have nothing to say to doctors like me, faced with the brutal, bloody compromises of hospital life

Ronald W Dworkin

Silhouette of person reaching towards vibrant colourful light patterns on a wall.

videoTeaching and learning

Museum-goers toy with reality in this Oscar-nominated short

16 minutes

Black and white photo of a man in a prison uniform surrounded by security personnel in a courtroom setting.

essayPersonality

There are no psychopaths

Virtually everything you think you know about psychopathy has been thoroughly debunked. Why does this zombie idea live on?

Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen

A fox walking through dry grass in a natural setting with its mouth open and ears perked up.

essayEcology and environmental sciences

Conservation’s prejudice

Ecology is pervaded by a nativist dogma against invasive species that distorts the science and undermines wildness

Carlos Santana

Abstract digital art with vertical lines and dark shapes, text overlay saying “why did you write it” in the centre.

videoInformation and communication

AI isn’t merely bad at writing. It does not and cannot write

40 minutes

Painting of abstract blue and orange shapes on top of a pink and beige background with black plants

videoArt

Transforming landscape painting into a portal through time

10 minutes

Image of a digitally rendered icy Earth-like planet in space with shadowed left side and visible landmasses.

essayEarth science and climate

The snowball effect

Our planet was once a harsh, alien, icy world. Yet this deep freeze may have shaped you, me and all life on Earth

Graham Shields

Black and white photo of a street scene with a heated discussion involving a traffic officer and men near cars.

essayPolitical philosophy

Guarding the guardians

Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?

Julien Lie-Panis

Illustration of a clock pierced by an arrow in a space with small pink spheres on a purple background.

videoPhysics

Time is real – if you view it through the lens of heat

6 minutes

Video of orcas swimming underwater displaying distinctive black-and-white patterns in a serene blue ocean environment.

essayBiology

Orcas and ourselves

Sea pandas or sadistic killers? These enigmatic creatures invite contradictory labels that say far more about us than them

Jason Colby

Photo of a truck on a narrow bridge with people balancing and pushing it under a clear sky.

essayHuman evolution

How selfish are we?

An age-old debate about human nature is being energised with new findings on the tightrope of cooperation and competition

Jonathan R Goodman

Photo of abstract light trails in yellow and white on a dark background, creating a swirling, dynamic pattern.

videoPhysics

Our Universe has light not by chance but by necessity

59 minutes

A baseball with red stitching on a black background partially lit from the top left corner.

essayPhysics

Playing in flatland

Physicists believe a third class of particles – anyons – could exist, but only in 2D. What kind of existence is that?

Elay Shech

Photo of two silhouettes walking by fountains with bokeh effect in the foreground, Arc de Triomphe in the background.

essayComputing and artificial intelligence

Computers can’t surprise

As AI’s endless clichés continue to encroach on human art, the true uniqueness of our creativity is becoming ever clearer

Richard Beard

Black-and-white photo of a man viewing framed artworks on a wall in an exhibition setting.

essayHistory of science

A light from the periphery

The life of Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose illuminates how scientific genius can emerge from the most unexpected quarters

Somaditya (Soma) Banerjee

Photo of a snow leopard looking up with a mountainous background and some foliage in the foreground.

videoAnimals and humans

There’s a gentle artistry to a museum taxidermist’s craft

8 minutes

essayHistory of ideas

The shape of time

In the 19th century, the linear idea of time became dominant, forever changing how those in the West experience the world

Emily Thomas

Photo of a person with glasses holding a clarinet, finger to lips in a shushing gesture, blue sky background.

videoNature and landscape

A breezy ode to wind ponders its power, beauty and utility

10 minutes