Science
essay
War and peace
The two Chomskys
The US military’s greatest enemy worked in an institution saturated with military funding. How did it shape his thought?
Chris Knight
essay
History of science
The rights of the dead
From the Irish Giant to the Ancient One, is it ever ethical for scientists and museums to study bodies without permission?
Anita Guerrini
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
essay
Medicine
Physician, invade thyself
Eager for medical breakthroughs, some doctors take enormous risks experimenting on themselves. Should we celebrate them?
Tom Doyle
essay
Genetics
Evolution without accidents
Despite advances in molecular genetics, too many biologists think that natural selection is driven by random mutations
James A Shapiro
essay
Quantum theory
Untangling entanglement
Why does the quantum world behave in that strange, spooky way? Here’s our simple, four-step explanation (no magic needed)
Huw Price & Ken Wharton
essay
Personality
The myth of mirrored twins
What do the lives of twins tell us about heritability, selfhood and the age-old debate between nature and nurture?
Gavin Evans
essay
Physics
Time is an object
Not a backdrop, an illusion or an emergent phenomenon, time has a physical size that can be measured in laboratories
Sara Walker & Lee Cronin
essay
Quantum theory
All is One
The ancient philosophy of monism and the physics of quantum entanglement agree: all that exists is one unified whole
Heinrich Päs
video
Information and communication
Mapping data visualisation’s meteoric rise from Victorian London to today
6 minutes
essay
History of science
Machina mundi
How medieval thinkers foreshadowed modern physics in investigating the character of machines, devices and forces
Henrik Lagerlund & Sylvain Roudaut
essay
History of ideas
Aristotle on making babies
He was the first great observer of nature. But his theory of human reproduction was deeply sexist – and enduring
Emily Thomas
video
History of science
How an ancient polymath first calculated Earth’s size, as told by Carl Sagan
7 minutes
video
Quantum theory
Why aren’t our everyday lives as ‘spooky’ as the quantum world?
7 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
video
History of science
Bat-people on the Moon – what a famed 1835 hoax reveals about misinformation today
8 minutes
video
Physics
The tangled tale of how physicists built a groundbreaking wormhole in a lab
17 minutes
essay
History of science
Inventing heaven
For hundreds of years, Christians knew exactly where heaven was: above us and above the stars. Then came the new cosmologists
Stephen Case
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
essay
Cosmology
Cogitating black holes
The Universe cannot always be understood through observation. Instead, physicists explore by devising thought experiments
Michael Dine
video
History of science
How one of history’s most beautiful books was used to find fate in the cosmos
6 minutes
essay
History of science
A singular scientist
James Lovelock was a visionary whose greatest ideas were made possible by his unshakeable independence
Roger Highfield
essay
Biology
A touch of moss
Inside a rainforest or on the city pavement, moss asks so little yet offers so much: a tactile encounter with time itself
Nikita Arora
video
Astronomy
From zero to 5,000 – music and visuals express 30 years of exoplanet discoveries
1 minute