essay
Cosmology
Exploding the Big Bang
It was thought that science could tell us about the origins of the Universe. Today that great endeavour is in serious doubt
Daniel Linford
video
Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
12 minutes
video
Physics
Why the golden age of total solar eclipses is already behind us
5 minutes
essay
Earth science and climate
When does after begin?
Three earthquakes hit Mexico City on the same date in 1985, 2017 and 2022. The coincidence left the city stranded in time
Lachlan Summers
video
Deep time
When algae met fungi – the hidden story of life’s most successful partnership
4 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
In an ancient English rainforest, John creates charcoal and cultivates growth
12 minutes
video
Biology
The idea that life on Earth originated elsewhere is not as far out as it seems
6 minutes
essay
Deep time
The Rift
Splitting the African continent, it is the only place where our human story can be read continuously from the very start
Tristan McConnell
video
Evolution
Why making if-then connections might be the key to consciousness
5 minutes
essay
Space exploration
Telescopes on the Moon
Our future in space relies on settling the Moon and using it as a base to probe the deepest questions in the cosmos
Joseph Silk
essay
Deep time
Mutual entrapment
As Neolithic people transformed prehistoric forests, they stumbled into an ecological trap. Domestication goes both ways
Mette Løvschal
essay
Cosmology
Dark horses in the cosmos
Could primordial black holes from the beginning of time explain ‘dark matter’, the mysterious missing mass in the Universe?
Briley Lewis
essay
Palaeontology
This riotous life
There’s no rhythm to mass extinctions, no pattern to evolutionary recovery. Life bursts forth, in cacophonous adaptation
Riley Black
video
Earth science and climate
‘Ice has a memory’ – an Inuit poem contemplates scientific exploration of Greenland
28 minutes
essay
Physics
The cosmic chasm
Physics as we know it is elegant and exquisitely accurate. It tells almost nothing about the deepest riddles of the Universe
Pedro G Ferreira
essay
Art
Cave art
For Palaeolithic societies, art-making was both a tool for survival and a tactile, joyous exploration of the world
Izzy Wisher
essay
Evolution
Origin story
Perched on the cusp between biology and chemistry, the start of life on Earth is an event horizon we struggle to see beyond
Natalie Elliot
essay
Thinkers and theories
Before, now, and next
Pastness, presentness and futurity seem to be real features of the world, but are they? On McTaggart’s philosophy of time
Emily Thomas
essay
Deep time
The planet is burning
Wild, feral and fossil-fuelled, fire lights up the globe. Is it time to declare that humans have created a Pyrocene?
Stephen J Pyne
essay
Cosmology
The cosmic now
Are you here now? Impossible to say. The idea that any group of events can truly happen at once is just an illusion
Anthony Aguirre
video
Cosmology
Deep time and beyond: the great nothingness at the end of the Universe
29 minutes
idea
Ecology and environmental sciences
We are heading for a New Cretaceous, not for a new normal
Peter Forbes
essay
Physics
Time after time
The question of whether time moves in a loop or a line has occupied human minds for millennia. Has physics found the answer?
Paul Halpern
video
Evolution
Take a shimmering, surreal swim with what might be the Earth’s oldest animals
7 minutes