Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Cause and effect may seem omnipresent in our everyday lives, but in quantum mechanics – and by extension, contemporary philosophy – it’s a notion that’s riddled with controversy. In this video from the interview series Closer to Truth, Barry Loewer, a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, discusses why Bertrand Russell believed causation was an outdated notion that had no place in modern thought. Countering Russell, Loewer details his own view that causation can and should be rescued from the dustbin of physics history, including why his name for the concept takes inspiration from a Coen brothers character.
Video by Closer to Truth
video
Philosophy of mind
‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations
3 minutes
video
Oceans and water
A stunning visualisation explores the intricate circulatory system of our oceans
5 minutes
video
History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
video
Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
video
Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
55 minutes
video
Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
24 minutes
video
Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes
video
Physics
Groundbreaking visualisations show how the world of the nucleus gives rise to our own
10 minutes