If you tied a rope tight around the Earth’s equator and then added a single yard of slack, would the extra material make any noticeable difference to someone standing on the ground? Yes, actually. The answer comes as a surprise to most people, but the additional bit of rope raise … | Continue reading
Pushing the boundaries of the corporeal in a quest for the ethereal: the history and science of dancing in pointe shoes | Continue reading
Muslims came to America more than a century before Protestants, and in great numbers. How was their history forgotten? | Continue reading
Writing essays by a formula was meant to be a step on the way. Now it’s the stifling goal for student and scholar alike | Continue reading
‘It’s not the journey, it’s the destination’ might seem like trite advice, but when it comes to storytelling, the worn adage actually seems to hold up to scrutiny. Just ask Nicholas Christenfeld, professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego: in a 2013 study, … | Continue reading
The internet makes knowledge a dare-devil pursuit. Can virtue survive when exposed to the morally unthinkable? | Continue reading
‘How can I be free in this particular cage?’From synthesizers replacing real instruments in the studio to the rise of musical compositions written entirely by AI, it’s not surprising that many professional musicians have been resistant to the ascendent role of technology in the m … | Continue reading
She took things too seriously. She was difficult and unyielding. That’s why Susan Sontag’s work matters so much even now | Continue reading
It ignited life on Earth, propelled evolution, and now signals climate change. Yet what sparks lightning remains a mystery | Continue reading
To reason is not only to decide: what if reason is simply the power to do the right thing in the right circumstances? | Continue reading
Neurofeedback can put thoughts in your head and help you conquer phobias – even when you’re unaware of what it’s doing | Continue reading
The great split between science and philosophy must be repaired. Only then can we answer the urgent, fundamental problems | Continue reading
Too much theory and not enough history leads contemporary economists to make poor predictions | Continue reading
As of 2019, some 20 British nationals have left home to join the fight against ISIS in Syria. Eight have died in the process. What’s leading Britons – mostly young civilians – to abandon the relative comforts of home and fight on the frontlines alongside people with whom they had … | Continue reading
Neurofeedback can put thoughts in your head and help you conquer phobias – even when you’re unaware of what it’s doing | Continue reading
Too much theory and not enough history leads contemporary economists to make poor predictions | Continue reading
When your reasons are worse than useless, sometimes the most rational choice is a random stab in the dark | Continue reading
Elections are flawed and can’t be redeemed – it’s time to start choosing our representatives by lottery | Continue reading
In classical ballet, a pas de deux (‘step of two’ in French) is a duet that showcases the skills of masterful dancers. This BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated short from 1968 marries two distinct kinds of virtuosity – the innovative cinematography of the late Scottish-Cana … | Continue reading
Like the emperor’s new clothes, genetic ancestry kits provide a story tailored to flatter the vain and the status-hungry | Continue reading
The great split between science and philosophy must be repaired. Only then can we answer the urgent, fundamental problems | Continue reading
One of the earliest references to the modern Tooth Fairy – that enigmatic trader of cold, hard cash for defunct deciduous teeth – is found in a 1908 ‘Household Hints’ item in the Chicago Daily Tribune:If he takes his little tooth and puts it under the pillow when he goes to bed, … | Continue reading
When Descartes untangled mind from matter, he ushered in an age of disenchantment that did nothing for our mental health | Continue reading
The influential Scottish-born psychiatrist R D Laing established an innovative approach to alleviating psychological anguish when, in 1965, he co-founded the Philadelphia Association. The organisation, which still operates in London, is centred on a communal approach to wellbeing … | Continue reading
New parents face intense moral pressure from every quarter to breastfeed their babies. But sometimes bottle is best | Continue reading
Neither wholly a theologian nor a pure scientist – how Carl Jung’s collective unconscious inspired Alcoholics Anonymous | Continue reading
Neither wholly a theologian nor a pure scientist – how Carl Jung’s collective unconscious inspired Alcoholics Anonymous | Continue reading
Farmed animals have personalities, smarts, even a sense of agency. Why then do we saddle them with lives of utter despair? | Continue reading
Women loved Bergson’s philosophy of creativity, change and freedom, but their enthusiasm fuelled a backlash against him | Continue reading
Why is it so enjoyable to drink something that sets off little explosions in your mouth? On the physics of carbonation | Continue reading
An unusually inventive instance of digital art, A Brief History of Almost Everything in Five Minutes is a sped-up excerpt from the hour-long multichannel video installation Deep Meditations. The London-based, Turkish-born visual artist Memo Akten created the piece by entering bro … | Continue reading
Once local and irregular, time-keeping became universal and linear in 311 BCE. History would never be the same again | Continue reading
An unusually inventive instance of digital art, A Brief History of Almost Everything in Five Minutes is a sped-up excerpt from the hour-long multichannel video installation Deep Meditations. The London-based, Turkish-born visual artist Memo Akten created the piece by entering bro … | Continue reading
Emotional labour today is like brain work last century. Safe from automation, will it be outsourced and professionalised? | Continue reading
Once local and irregular, time-keeping became universal and linear in 311 BCE. History would never be the same again | Continue reading
‘In this great ocean, many have found still another island, which is called Vinland, since there grow wild grapes. But beyond, everything is filled with intolerable ice and terrible fog.’ – Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (c1070)Up until the 1960s, the e … | Continue reading
Women loved Bergson’s philosophy of creativity, change and freedom, but their enthusiasm fuelled a backlash against him | Continue reading
Through climate engineering and gene drives, we are consciously remaking Earth’s metabolism. Welcome to the synthetic age | Continue reading
Practising the Greek virtues of wisdom and courage is one thing. But being cheerful the American way borders on psychosis | Continue reading
The smart stay smart while the dumb get dumber: why streaming schoolchildren by ability fails to benefit the majority | Continue reading
Caddisflies are popular on the fly-fishing scene, where anglers do their best to emulate the stream-scavenging creatures in their mature form. But like most aquatic insects, caddisflies actually spend the vast majority of their lives underwater in their larval stage, where they c … | Continue reading
The smart stay smart while the dumb get dumber: why streaming schoolchildren by ability fails to benefit the majority | Continue reading
As for most ancient philosophers, Lucretius saw no boundary between his scientific interests and his ethical claims | Continue reading
‘I get tickles... like on the first day I saw him and fell in love with him.’Maribel is in love – or, at least the innocent version of it that a nine-year-old might experience. Sitting in her bedroom in Pueblo Textil in Cuba, dressed in her school uniform, Maribel recounts her se … | Continue reading
Practising the Greek virtues of wisdom and courage is one thing. But being cheerful the American way borders on psychosis | Continue reading
Macho swagger and a hard-man mask that never slips: how prison culture can affect the individual’s sense of self | Continue reading
We can analyse how fashion works by breaking it down into networks of style elements. What role, then, for human creativity? | Continue reading
Coordinated to correspond with Canada’s centennial, the 1967 International and Universal Exposition (Expo 67) is widely considered as one of the most notable and successful World’s Fairs ever held. The retro-futuristic residues of the mega-event can still be experienced where it … | Continue reading