Science
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Metaphysics
Bertrand Russell wanted to kill off causation. Can contemporary philosophy rescue it?
8 minutes
essay
Gender and identity
Disarming transphobia
‘Rapid-onset gender dysphoria’ is a popular weapon in the anti-trans arsenal. It is nothing but unscientific bunk
Quinnehtukqut McLamore
essay
Space exploration
There’s no planet B
The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why
Arwen E Nicholson & Raphaëlle D Haywood
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History of science
Bat-people on the Moon – what a famed 1835 hoax reveals about misinformation today
8 minutes
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Biotechnology
What it’s like to wear a prosthetic that ‘feels’
6 minutes
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Chemistry
A square inch in a Petri dish becomes a grand stage for chemical transformations
4 minutes
video
Medicine
What is it like to be a paramedic, navigating human emergency?
17 minutes
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Physics
The tangled tale of how physicists built a groundbreaking wormhole in a lab
17 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
Teaching an AI to beat video games still takes human imagination
5 minutes
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Social psychology
Social contagions can cause genuine illness, and TikTok may be a superspreader
10 minutes
essay
Nature and landscape
Home and the birdsong
In the dark, sylvan villages of medieval England, people named places after the birds that filled the night with music
Michael J Warren
essay
Astronomy
Thriving on Mars
Dust storms, long distances and freezing temperatures make living on Mars magnificently challenging. How will we do it?
Simon Morden
essay
History of science
Where God dwelt
For hundreds of years, Christians knew exactly where heaven was: above us and above the stars. Then came the new cosmologists
Stephen Case
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Evolution
Why making if-then connections might be the key to consciousness
5 minutes
essay
Ethics
Moral mathematics
Subjecting the problems of ethics to the cool quantifications of logic and probability can help us to be better people
Elad Uzan
essay
Earth science and climate
Our Earth, shaped by life
Darwin was the first to see that all lifeforms, from worms to corals, transform the planet. What does that mean for us?
Olivia Judson
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Biology
To understand the limits of human senses, look to the wild world of animal cognition
45 minutes
essay
Cosmology
Cogitating black holes
The Universe cannot always be understood through observation. Instead, physicists explore by devising thought experiments
Michael Dine
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Design and fashion
From sheep to sea – an ode to the iconic sweater that warms Cornish sailors
4 minutes
essay
Mental health
The helpful delusion
Evidence is growing that mental illness is more than dysfunction, with enormous implications for treatment
Justin Garson
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Knowledge
Yes, the Inuit have dozens of words for snow – but what does each one mean exactly?
6 minutes
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History of science
How one of history’s most beautiful books was used to find fate in the cosmos
6 minutes
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Evolution
Symmetry rules life on Earth – but it comes with many fascinating exceptions
9 minutes
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Biology
There’s no one way for an insect to fly, but they’re all amazing in close up and slo-mo
7 minutes