essay
History of technology
We’ve always been distracted
Worried that technology is ‘breaking your brain’? Fears about attention spans and focus are as old as writing itself
Joe Stadolnik
video
Archaeology
From Roman pots to glass eyes, the shore of the river Thames teems with surprises
8 minutes
video
Art
Edward Hopper came of age with cinema. As an artist, he left a lasting mark on it
12 minutes
video
Biography and memoir
What Akiko saw at the centre of the Hiroshima blast, and the indelible mark it left
15 minutes
essay
History of technology
Care from afar
For over a century telemedicine has promised healthcare for all. But will it ever replace seeing a human being in person?
Jeremy A Greene
video
The ancient world
Why did the Romans create a massive, entirely impractical map of their empire?
7 minutes
video
War and peace
A peace activist’s harrowing account of nuclear war is a visceral case for disarmament
26 minutes
essay
Environmental history
Dancing with water
As storms, droughts and floods become more intense, what can the world learn from Japan’s profoundly wet history?
Giulio Boccaletti
video
History of technology
Master cartography and mythical creatures – the world according to the Catalan Atlas
8 minutes
video
Music
Before the Beatles dropped acid, a BBC workshop was creating far-out sounds
6 minutes
video
Making
Ceramic designs spin to life in a tactile meditation on the art of pottery
9 minutes
video
History of technology
A rare glimpse inside a samurai sword workshop, where ritual meets mastery
24 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
From ‘chandeliers’ to entangled qubits, here’s what happens inside a quantum computer
9 minutes
essay
Environmental history
Contaminated kinship
If your hometown were beset with toxic dust, like Australia’s Broken Hill, would you feel any less connected to it?
Lilian Pearce
video
History of technology
Unravelling the surprisingly epic story of the world’s oldest pair of trousers
45 minutes
video
History of technology
Reading the strings and knots that keep the secrets of the Inka Empire
9 minutes
video
History of technology
Behold as a mechanical foghorn in Shetland awakes from its year-long slumber
2 minutes
essay
Information and communication
Trolls be gone
Anonymous users generate most toxic abuse and conspiracy theories online. The right to be anonymous should be curtailed
Stephen Kinsella
video
Archaeology
A Viking axe struck a Newfoundland tree in the year 1021. Here’s how scientists proved it
7 minutes
video
Physics
In this 1975 lecture, the maglev train’s inventor deconstructs his ingenious design
19 minutes
video
History of technology
Remarkable historical footage is locked behind paywalls. It’s time to set it free
4 minutes
video
Thinkers and theories
Bigger isn’t better – the renegade ‘Buddhist economics’ of E F Schumacher
30 minutes
essay
History of technology
Pixel: a biography
An exact mathematical concept, pixels are the elementary particles of pictures, based on a subtle unpacking of infinity
Alvy Ray Smith
essay
Language and linguistics
Typos, tricks and misprints
Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology
Arika Okrent