For the political economist Albert O Hirschman, democracy thrives not on strong opinions but on doubt and flexibility | Continue reading
I self-published erotica to make ends meet. Could I follow in Anaïs Nin’s footsteps or was I doomed to churn out filth? | Continue reading
Vanished beneath the waves in 373 BCE, Helike is a byword for thinking about disaster, for ancients and moderns alike | Continue reading
A classic stereoscopic animation from 1951 illustrates why we don’t need goggles to perceive flat surfaces in 3D | Continue reading
Vanished beneath the waves in 373 BCE, Helike is a byword for thinking about disaster, for ancients and moderns alike | Continue reading
The Greek colour experience was made of movement and shimmer. Can we ever glimpse what they saw when gazing out to sea? | Continue reading
I self-published erotica to make ends meet. Could I follow in Anaïs Nin’s footsteps or was I doomed to churn out filth? | Continue reading
We live in a world that must move beyond identity politics and embrace new models of the mind. Enter psydiversity | Continue reading
After decades of progress, cosmology is at a crossroads. Can it take its next big leap to solve the puzzles of dark matter? | Continue reading
We live in a world that must move beyond identity politics and embrace new models of the mind. Enter psydiversity | Continue reading
Throughout evolutionary history, we never saw anything like a montage. So why do we hardly notice the cuts in movies? | Continue reading
At 700, Dante’s Divine Comedy is as modern as ever – a lesson in spiritual intelligence that makes us better at being alive | Continue reading
Why Hokusai’s Great Wave – created amid Japanese isolation – became a resounding artistic and commercial success worldwide | Continue reading
Why Hokusai’s Great Wave – created amid Japanese isolation – became a resounding artistic and commercial success worldwide | Continue reading
Insect farming bakes, boils and shreds animals by the trillion. It’s immoral, risky and won’t resolve the climate crisis | Continue reading
Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology | Continue reading
A quick peak into the dynamics of herding behaviours in this mesmerising dance of sheep viewed from the sky above Israel | Continue reading
Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology | Continue reading
It’s become a commonplace that demographic anxiety is driving white voters to the far Right. This is dangerously wrong | Continue reading
Mead, so radical about gender and sex in her early work, doubled down on the differences between men and women later. Why? | Continue reading
For 97 per cent of human history, all people had about the same power and access to goods. How did inequality ratchet up? | Continue reading
Shaking off Nazism was no simple matter: the work to create a plural and peacable Germany was prolonged and painful | Continue reading
Moral philosophy is bogus, a mere substitute for God that licenses ugly emotions. Here are five reasons to reject it | Continue reading
Moral philosophy is bogus, a mere substitute for God that licenses ugly emotions. Here are five reasons to reject it | Continue reading
How would a piano sound on Mars? Explore real and speculated soundscapes in this absorbing CGI voyage beyond Earth | Continue reading
Adolescence isn’t a time of life so much as a frame of mind. Liberating yet damaging, it’s transformed the US and the world | Continue reading
Most cosmologists say dark matter must exist. So far, it’s nowhere to be found. A widely scorned rival theory explains why | Continue reading
Emergency first responders working the graveyard shift in San Francisco field life-or-death calls – then try to forget them | Continue reading
At 700, Dante’s Divine Comedy is as modern as ever – a lesson in spiritual intelligence that makes us better at being alive | Continue reading
The half-gods of Plato’s Atlantis never existed, but their story still has much to teach us about the values of ancient Athens | Continue reading
Most cosmologists say dark matter must exist. So far, it’s nowhere to be found. A widely scorned rival theory explains why | Continue reading
Most cosmologists say dark matter must exist. So far, it’s nowhere to be found. A widely scorned rival theory explains why | Continue reading
From cradle to grave, we are soothed and rocked by attachments – our source of joy and pain, and the essence of who we are | Continue reading
Albert Camus’s philosophy charts a path to humanity that shows why we should learn to stop worrying and love the absurd | Continue reading
There is no American history without the histories of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. And this past has consequences today | Continue reading
What can the decline of the Roman Empire and the end of European feudalism tell us about COVID-19 and the future of the West? | Continue reading
The chaotic and joyful musical moment in 1978 when two punk bands came to play at a psychiatric hospital in California | Continue reading
What can the decline of the Roman Empire and the end of European feudalism tell us about COVID-19 and the future of the West? | Continue reading
Take a ride on the retro side with this stylish celebration of classic motorcycle design of the 1950s and ’60s | Continue reading
Disagreements can be unpleasant, even offensive, but they are vital to human reason. Without them we remain in the dark | Continue reading
Simone Weil: mystic, philosopher, activist. Her ethics demand that we look beyond the personal and find the universal | Continue reading
Popular culture sees Nero as a sadist. The artefacts tell a more balanced story, revealing how history mutates over time | Continue reading
We no longer have a clear sense of how to introduce our children to death. But their questions can help us face up to it | Continue reading
An ode to the rotifer – how these microscopic creatures live, die and dry out, entering a peculiar state somewhere in between | Continue reading
An ode to the rotifer – how these microscopic creatures live, die and dry out, entering a peculiar state somewhere in between | Continue reading
Deep brain stimulation not only treats psychiatric disease – it changes the whole person, boosting confidence and openness | Continue reading
Deep brain stimulation not only treats psychiatric disease – it changes the whole person, boosting confidence and openness | Continue reading
Shoddy filmmaking, stiff acting, clinical dialogue – yes! The cult thrill of a 1960s police training film for a sudden birth | Continue reading