Matthew Battles

Matthew Battles is the author of Library: an Unquiet History, the co-founder of the HiLowbrow blog and a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Written by Matthew Battles

A hand holding four small white figurines, each intricately carved from tusk and with unique designs, against a blurred grassy background.

essay

Anthropology

Specimens

Figurines, fishers, bugs and bats – how things in the world become sacred objects in a museum

Matthew Battles

Photo of Saturn with its rings prominently visible, showing two of its moons against the dark background of space.

essay

Astronomy

The ache for immortality

The Voyager probes speed on with their messages of humility and greatness, strange memorials to a spacefaring age

Matthew Battles