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Science

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science
The International Space Station is seen at an angle through a window against the darkness of space
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essay

Space exploration

The skyhook solution

Space junk surrounds Earth, posing a dangerous threat. But there is a way to turn the debris into opportunity

Angelos Alfatzis

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video

Computing and artificial intelligence

A scientist’s poor eyesight helped fuel a revolution in computer ‘vision’

9 minutes

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video

Ageing and death

Demystifying death – a palliative care specialist’s practical guide to life’s end

4 minutes

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video

Future of technology

Is this the future of space travel? Take a luxury ‘cruise’ across the solar system

6 minutes

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video

Metaphysics

Why mathematical truths exist with or without minds to consider them

8 minutes

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video

Computing and artificial intelligence

Struggling to learn how to do a backflip, Nikita takes on an unusual training regimen

12 minutes

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video

Deep time

When algae met fungi – the hidden story of life’s most successful partnership

4 minutes

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video

Ecology and environmental sciences

From helicopter flybys to trail cameras, there’s no one way to count a wolf

8 minutes

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video

Biology

Explore a bioluminescent world of cellular life via cutting-edge microscopy

27 minutes

Human figures beneath a glass dome watch the launch of a rocket from the surface of Mars
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essay

Space exploration

The final ethical frontier

Earthbound exploration was plagued with colonialism, exploitation and extraction. Can we hope to make space any different?

Philip Ball

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essay

Astronomy

Panspermia

It’s possible that frozen worlds with subterranean oceans are incubators of organic life. But then how did life get here?

Balazs Bradak

A black and white photo of a man in doctor’s clothing posed next to a lab bench with a microscope looking directly at the camera
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essay

Medicine

Physician, invade thyself

Eager for medical breakthroughs, some doctors take enormous risks experimenting on themselves. Should we celebrate them?

Tom Doyle

Silhouetted figures stand beside a car looking up at a starry night sky
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essay

Space exploration

Uncertain contact

The detection of alien life won’t be obvious. It’ll be partial and inconclusive: a perfect task for the scientific method

Jaime Green

Peach Twig (Prunus Persica) (1918) by Royal Charles Steadman
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video

Biology

In 1886, a US agency set out to record new fruit varieties. The results are wondrous

5 minutes

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video

Death

Even in modern secular societies, belief in an afterlife persists. Why?

9 minutes

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video

Nature and landscape

Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece

6 minutes

A close up picture of hands playing a silver brass flute with a shallow depth of field such that the foreground fingers and keys are more in focus
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essay

Music

To the tune of dystonia

One day, my hand stopped speaking to my brain. As a doctor and flute player, I had to understand this strange affliction

Lynn Hallarman

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video

Design and fashion

The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays

14 minutes

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video

Physics

A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet

9 minutes

Rubens painting Venus and Cupid reimagined with Venus on the left gazing in a mirror at her mastectomized breast. A cherub like Cupid to the right holds the mirror
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essay

Illness and disease

More than pink

The culture around breast cancer is full of positivity and femininity. But it comes at the expense of the marginalised

Philippa Hetherington

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video

Animals and humans

An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’

5 minutes

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video

Mathematics

How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever

9 minutes

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essay

Quantum theory

We are not empty

The concept of the atomic void is one of the most repeated mistakes in popular science. Molecules are packed with stuff

Mario Barbatti

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video

Physics

A dreamy tribute to the music of Brian Eno, rendered in paint, soap and water

2 minutes