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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 fishermen in a circle on a lake using large nets at sunrise with a distant island and hills in the background.

essay

Human evolution

The commitment to collaborate

Though natural selection favours self-interest, humans are extraordinarily good at cooperating with one another. Why?

Saira Khan

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit holding a mug, sitting next to a chimpanzee in an enclosure.

essay

Human evolution

The eugenicist of UNESCO

Why did Julian S Huxley, first director of the UN agency, think eugenics held the key to a more evolved, harmonious world?

Stefan Bernhardt-Radu

Illustration of a dodo bird with grey feathers, brown beak, and stubby wings, standing on a grassy, sandy ground.

video

Evolution

How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution

60 minutes

Newborn baby being held by a person wearing blue gloves, with another masked individual looking at the baby in a medical setting.

essay

Human reproduction

Baby talk

When babies are born, they cry in the accent of their mother tongue: how does language begin in the womb?

Darshana Narayanan

Three children in colourful clothing walk through a dense, leafy forest with sunlight filtering through the canopy.

essay

Anthropology

Societies of perpetual movement

Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

Three colourful cell spheres with glowing pink and blue nuclei on a black background, showing cellular structures in vibrant detail.

video

Biology

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

27 minutes

A person in a lab coat holds an alligator hand puppet and a mouse hand puppet, mimicking an interaction between them.

video

Death

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

9 minutes

A baby in a high chair waves a yellow toy while a woman in a pink top opens a sauce bottle at a table with plates of food.

essay

Human evolution

How to grow a human

Our childhood is preposterously long compared to other animals. Is it the secret to our evolutionary success?

Brenna Hassett

Cartoon of a yellow character with pink hair buns, holding a small blue puppy, set against a light blue background.

video

Human evolution

Far from frivolous, cuteness is a powerful – and still mysterious – force of nature

6 minutes

Close-up of a kiwi bird with a long beak and shaggy brown feathers, standing against a white background.

essay

Human evolution

How like the kiwi we are

To understand helpless human babies, our big brains and oddly involved dads, look to the evolution of birds not mammals

Antone Martinho-Truswell

Two people in dark clothing walking through tall grass with trees in the background, one carrying a hunting bow and arrows in a sunny setting.

essay

Anthropology

Lessons from the foragers

Hunter-gatherers don’t live in an economic idyll but their deep appreciation of rest puts industrialised work to shame

Vivek V Venkataraman

A group of four people in primitive clothing, standing in a rocky landscape with large animal bones in the background.

essay

Archaeology

Children of the Ice Age

With the help of new archaeological approaches, our picture of young lives in the Palaeolithic is now marvellously vivid

April Nowell

View of a misty forest with green trees seen from inside a dark cave, with stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling.

essay

Human evolution

Out of the forest

We have thought of humans for a century or more as creatures of the savannah, shaped in every way by grassland life. Not so

Patrick Roberts

A woman in a navy blouse speaks animatedly with hands outstretched, seated in a library with bookshelves and a wooden table in the background.

video

Neuroscience

The brain repurposed our sense of physical distance to understand social closeness

5 minutes

Victorian-era portrait of a man and woman; the woman holds a small framed photograph, in an ornate gold oval frame.

essay

Love and friendship

Tainted love

Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands

Anna Machin

Illustration of an African village with thatched huts, people gathered around a fire, and a scenic mountainous background.

essay

Anthropology

Primitive communism

Marx’s idea that societies were naturally egalitarian and communal before farming is widely influential and quite wrong

Manvir Singh

Three people in dinosaur costumes hold “Go Vegan” signs while walking across a busy city intersection.

essay

Virtues and vices

Is virtue signalling a vice?

Proclaiming one’s own goodness is deeply annoying. Yet signalling theory explains why it’s a peculiarly powerful manoeuvre

Tadeg Quillien

A girl in a red outfit playfully poses in front of 3D art as though emerging from a giant whale-like creature’s mouth.

essay

Human evolution

Homo imaginatus

Imagination isn’t just a spillover from our problem-solving prowess. It might be the core of what human brains evolved to do

Philip Ball

Black and white image of a woman singing passionately into a microphone, with hand raised, against a dark background.

essay

Music

Music and sex

A song can take you on a journey of ecstatic arousal. Is music imitating sex, inviting it, or something else altogether?

Michael Spitzer

Abstract illustration of a woman holding hands with a child, walking down a path, surrounded by colourful shapes.

video

Philosophy of mind

Caring for the vulnerable opens gateways to our richest, deepest brain states

7 minutes

A child lying on a boat surrounded by corals, large shells, and handmade jewellery, with blue water in the background.

essay

Sleep and dreams

Why do we sleep?

Adults sleep less than babies. Sperm whales sleep less again. A new mathematical theory unlocks the mysteries of slumber

Van Savage & Geoffrey West

A tribal man wearing traditional attire holds hands with another as two tribe members work near a thatched hut.

essay

Anthropology

How equality slipped away

For 97 per cent of human history, all people had about the same power and access to goods. How did inequality ratchet up?

Kim Sterelny

A man in a turban and long beard sitting between two hospital beds, comforting two patients who are lying down with medical equipment attached.

essay

Mental health

We heal one another

When a person is in distress, we can draw on deep, evolved mechanisms to calm the storm, through attention, touch and care

Brandon Kohrt

Microscopic image of colourful neural tissue with bright pink, green and blue cells, showing intricate patterns.

essay

Human evolution

Brains in a dish

What pea-sized brain organoids reveal about consciousness, the self and our future as a species

Alysson Muotri