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Science

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

Astronomy Biology Biotechnology Chemistry Complexity Computing and artificial intelligence Cosmology Deep time Earth science and climate Ecology and environmental sciences Engineering Evolution Genetics History of science Human evolution Human reproduction Illness and disease Mathematics Medicine Oceans and water Palaeontology Physics Quantum theory Space exploration

Photo of shattered glass with multiple cracks against a black background.

essay

Philosophy of mind

Rage against the machine

For all the promise and dangers of AI, computers plainly can’t think. To think is to resist – something no machine does

Alva Noë

A DNA double helix with overlapping images: lined pages, the printed pages of an old book, and a painted portrait of a woman that is the Mona Lisa, all on a black background.

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?

12 minutes

Close-up of a person’s hand using a smartphone in a dimly lit room with blurred lights in the background. The phone screen shows the text ‘How can I help you today?’ and a text input field.

essay

Computing and artificial intelligence

Mere imitation

Generative AI has lately set off public euphoria: the machines have learned to think! But just how intelligent is AI?

Deepak P

A team of surgeons in blue scrubs and surgical caps operate under bright surgical lights in an operating theatre. Medical instruments and equipment are arranged on tables around them, while one team member adjusts another’s mask. Shelves in the background hold medical supplies.

essay

Medicine

Last hours of an organ donor

In the liminal time when the brain is dead but organs are kept alive, there is an urgent tenderness to medical care

Ronald W Dworkin

Rainy forest road with yellow railings on either side and autumn trees with colourful leaves lining the road. Wet reflective surface and slight haze from the rain.

essay

Neuroscience

How to make a map of smell

We can split light by a prism, sounds by tones, but surely the world of odour is too complex and personal? Strangely, no

Jason Castro

Four blue, irregularly shaped objects with black squiggly lines attached, displayed in a sequence against grey and white backgrounds.

video

Physics

Is it possible to design a shape to roll along any fixed path?

4 minutes

A busy public library reading room with people using desktop computers at wooden tables, surrounded by bookshelves and lit by large windows and chandeliers.

essay

History of technology

Indexing the information age

Over a weekend in 1995, a small group gathered in Ohio to unleash the power of the internet by making it navigable

Monica Westin

A tree with exposed roots growing from an eroded cliffside, with dense foliage in the background.

essay

Computing and artificial intelligence

Frontier AI ethics

Generative agents will change our society in weird, wonderful and worrying ways. Can philosophy help us get a grip on them?

Seth Lazar

Close-up of an orange Mercedes car with the focus on the front tyre, which is inscribed with ‘In Crypto We Trust’

essay

Economics

The cruelty of crypto

Selling itself as the new American dream, crypto exposes the vulnerable to fraud and scams, and loads risk onto the poor

Rachel O’Dwyer

Stephen Fry stands at a podium, wearing a checkered blazer, pink shirt, and ‘Choose Love’ badge, speaking with an expressive gesture.

video

Meaning and the good life

Why strive? Stephen Fry reads Nick Cave’s letter on the threat of computed creativity

5 minutes

Abstract night scene with vibrant colours; glowing trees line the horizon under a dark sky with a bright, distorted moon.

video

Film and visual culture

An augmented-reality filter reveals the hidden movements all around us

7 minutes

Aerial view of a river winding through a lush green valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains with a few red marked spots.

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

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

9 minutes

A 3D model of a room in progress, with a floating person, computer setup, scattered items, bed, pictures on the wall, and a plant by the window.

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

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

12 minutes

Hand holding a paintbrush colouring a vintage map of England with various regions in different colours.

video

Mathematics

How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever

9 minutes

video

Technology and the self

Why we should worry less about ‘sentient’ AIs and more about what we’re teaching them

16 minutes

Person with tattooed arms wearing a spiked, leather arm brace connected with cables and finger straps, a piece of custom technology.

video

Music

Electronic gloves and even potted plants make music in a playground for sound innovation

6 minutes

Person using a vintage Raytheon computer terminal with text on the screen, next to a rotary phone on a desk.

essay

History of technology

Ingenious librarians

A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it

Monica Westin

A person walks by snow-covered tables and chairs with yellow umbrellas reflected in a puddle on the ground during snowfall.

essay

Beauty and aesthetics

Patterns of the lifeworld

Machine learning theory is shedding new light on how to think about the mysterious and ineffable nature of art

Peli Grietzer

A man playing a Yamaha piano with headphones on. Abstract, white ribbon-like lines float above, on a black background.

video

Music

As a pianist strikes a chord, visualisations of his notes appear in real time

5 minutes

Close-up of a sea snail with sand grains on its shell and long, bright yellow antennae against a dark background.

essay

Computing and artificial intelligence

What has feelings?

As the power of AI grows, we need to have evidence of its sentience. That is why we must return to the minds of animals

Kristin Andrews & Jonathan Birch

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

Teaching an AI to beat video games still takes human imagination

5 minutes

Microscopic image of a green cell adjacent to a larger pink cell on a black background.

essay

Evolution

What on earth is a xenobot?

The more we understand how cells produce shape and form, the more inadequate the idea of a genomic blueprint looks

Philip Ball

Photo of a chair and a striped pole, with the overlaid text “IS THIS ART?” and the possible answers “YES NO YES NO NO”.

video

Art

What does an AI make of what it sees in a contemporary art museum?

15 minutes

A data centre corridor with black server racks on both sides, a transparent ceiling, and two people standing at the end near glass doors.

essay

Computing and artificial intelligence

The people of the cloud

Hot, strenuous and unsung. There is nothing soft and fluffy about the caretaking work that enables our digital lives

Steven Gonzalez Monserrate