Society
video
Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
video
Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
essay
Demography and migration
The vanishing of youth
The precipitous decline of birthrates throughout the world poses a serious threat to humanity. What is to be done?
Victor Kumar
video
Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
essay
Global history
Vikings on the Silk Roads
The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East
Neil Price
essay
Information and communication
Methodical banality
Like today’s large language models, 16th-century humanists had techniques to automate writing – to the detriment of novelty
Hannah Katznelson
video
Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
Struggling to wake
After a murderous kidnapping in Nigeria, I launched a campaign to put a stop to the abductions. Why did no one listen?
Ayisha Osori
video
Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
essay
Philosophy of science
More-than-human science
When AI takes over the practice of science we will likely find the results strange and incomprehensible. Should we worry?
Brandon Boesch
essay
Thinkers and theories
The truth about love
In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates shared a theory of love from the teachings of a ‘non-Athenian woman’. Who was she really?
Armand D’Angour
video
Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
essay
Death
The last letter
Condemned to death by firing squad, French resistance fighters put pen to paper. Their dying words can teach us how to live
Daniel R Brunstetter
essay
Space exploration
Have they been here?
When we look for extraterrestrials, we often peer into the depths of space. But alien life might be closer than you think
Ravi Kopparapu & Jacob Haqq Misra
video
Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
essay
Meaning and the good life
Welcome to the Chaoscene
The climate crisis is here. In order to thrive in these dangerous and precarious times, we must build resilient communities
Rupert Read
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
video
History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
essay
Nations and empires
Shame and revolution
Vietnam’s potent and storied anticolonialism is founded upon a unique sense of national shame
Kevin D Pham
essay
The environment
On unstable ground
A ‘great reshuffle’ of the land is underway. It will force us to reconsider traditional ideas of property and ownership
Michael Albertus
essay
Gender
Does testosterone make men?
In probing whether there are basic sex differences in humans, a psychologist and a biologist agree to seriously disagree
Cordelia Fine & Carole Hooven
essay
Language and linguistics
The lonely life of a glyph-breaker
The heroic days of deciphering hieroglyphics and cuneiform make for great stories, but will we ever see that happen again?
Francesco Perono Cacciafoco
essay
Dance and theatre
What actors know
Acting is an ancient and intrinsically human way to establish vibrant connections with one another. And it’s available to us all
John Britton
essay
Poverty and development
Raising the threshold
The World Bank’s poverty line is inaccurate and out of date – an error that obscures the feebleness of market solutions
Attrishu Bordoloi