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CSP

Corey S Powell

Science Journalist, New York

Corey S Powell is a science editor and journalist. He has been an editor at Discover, Scientific American and Aeon. He is the author of God in the Equation (2003), and co-author of three books with Bill Nye, including Everything All at Once (2017). He is currently working on a book about the invisible aspects of the Universe, to be published by Harper One in 2026. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Written by Corey S Powell

Infrared image of the Milky Way shows a glowing red band of stars across a blue background, indicating cosmic dust and gas.

essayHistory of science

The light beyond sight

Only a tiny sliver of the Universe’s light can be seen by human eyes. But today we’re catching glimpses of the invisible

Corey S Powell

A digital painting of abstract shapes and lines featuring colourful spheres with light trails against a wavy background.

essayPhysics

Chasing ghost particles

Without the neutrino, the Universe might be an empty void. But this inscrutable particle isn’t giving up its secrets easily

Corey S Powell

An observatory under a starry sky, with the Milky Way galaxy clearly visible above.

essayCosmology

The search for alien tech

There’s a new plan to find extraterrestrial civilisations by the way they live. But if we can see them, can they see us?

Corey S Powell

Silhouette of a person standing and looking at a starry night sky with the Milky Way visible across the horizon

essayCosmology

Fate of the Universe

Are we part of a dying reality or a blip in eternity? The value of the Hubble Constant could tell us which terror awaits

Corey S Powell

Edited by Corey S Powell

Vintage black and white photo of a man seated with superimposed blurry faces above him, creating a haunting or spiritual effect.

essayHistory of science

Spiritual hyperplane

How spiritualists of the 19th century forged a lasting association between higher dimensions and the occult world

Paul Halpern

Painting of spacecraft near Earth. A solar array, asteroid, and smaller satellites are in space. Earth is visible in the background.

ideaSpace exploration

Want faster data and a cleaner planet? Start mining asteroids

Philip Metzger

Painting of a whaling scene with boats and a large whale in the water, set against icy shores, cliffs, and ships in the background.

ideaSpace exploration

How the whalers of Moby-Dick could help put humans on Mars

Matthew Bruen

Vintage photo of a female diver in mid-air near a diving board, arms extended, body taut, in flight against a clear sky.

essayHistory of science

Armchair science

Thought experiments played a crucial role in the history of science. But do they tell us anything about the real world?

Dan Falk

Microscopic image of a blue, fibrous material with two tiny, curved worm-like organisms on its surface, dark background, scale bar.

essayEarth science and climate

Life goes deeper

The Earth is not a solid mass of rock: its hot, dark, fractured subsurface is home to weird and wonderful life forms

Gaetan Borgonie & Maggie Lau

A modern green and red building with large windows and leafy designs on the top, set against a partly cloudy sky.

ideaArchitecture

Let’s open our sealed-off lives to semi-permeable architecture

Rachel Armstrong

Two fossilised skeletons displayed side by side on a black background showing various bones and fragments

essayRituals and celebrations

Who first buried the dead?

Evidence of burial rites by the primitive, small-brained Homo naledi suggests that symbolic behaviour is very ancient indeed

Paige Madison

Abstract geometric painting with overlapping rectangles, triangles, circles in various muted colours and textures on a textured background.

essayMathematics

How natural is numeracy?

Where does our number sense come from? Is it a neural capacity we are born with — or is it a product of our culture?

Philip Ball

Abstract digital illustration of large red spheres with a mini planetary system inside one, set against a dark blue background

essayCosmology

Universe in a bubble

Maybe we don’t have to speculate about what life is like inside a bubble. It might be the only cosmic reality we know

J Richard Gott

$Image of Europa’s icy surface taken by a space probe, showing reddish-brown ridges and fractures against a greenish background.$

ideaSpace exploration

To find aliens, we must think of life as we don’t know it

Ramin Skibba

A black and white photo of a man in a suit observing a large group of people wearing cardboard boxes on their heads.

ideaHistory of science

The most wonderful words in science: ‘We have no idea… yet!’

Daniel Whiteson

Black-and-white photo of a man in a winter coat and hat walking on a city street with people in the background, mid-20th century.

essayPhysics

Operation: neutrino

How the neutrino went from ghost particle to vital physics tool – a tale of bombs, espionage and subtle flavours

David Kaiser