How “My Octopus Teacher” Defied Convention - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared on Nautilus… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Man Who Seduced the World with Whale Songs - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Fig

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Incredible Fig - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Life Always Wins. Follow Me - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

We Are Beast Machines

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Where Aliens Could Be Watching Us

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

A Wrinkle in Nature Could Lead to Alien Life

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Matter Astronomy If Aliens Exist, Here’s How We’ll Find Them

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Trouble with Brain Scans

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

We Discovered a Rogues’ Gallery of Monster-Sized Gas Giants - Facts So Romantic

It doesn’t feel right to see a toddler walking down the street by themselves. Toddlers don’t just go rogue, and if they do they… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Where Aliens Could Be Watching Us - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

A Wrinkle in Nature Could Lead to Alien Life - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

If Aliens Exist, Here’s How We’ll Find Them - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

That Is Not How Your Brain Works

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

We Are Beast Machines - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

That Is Not How Your Brain Works - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Trouble with Brain Scans - Issue 111: Spotlight

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Worth of an Angry God

A god who knows everything, is everywhere, and wields impossible power, is a potent fantasy. Allegiance to it animates the lives of… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Bernard Rollin was a pioneer in animal rights, left with a scalding interview

Well into the 1980s, doctors would perform open-heart surgery on infants without giving them pain-relieving drugs. This is hard to… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

He Did Right by Animals. And Didn’t Take Bull from Anyone. - Issue 109: Excavation

Well into the 1980s, doctors would perform open-heart surgery on infants without giving them pain-relieving drugs. This is hard to… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Beloved Mesolithic Girl - Issue 109: Excavation

Ten thousand years ago, a mother clutched her growing belly. A month earlier, the pregnancy had become difficult—something was wrong.… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Worth of an Angry God - Issue 109: Excavation

A god who knows everything, is everywhere, and wields impossible power, is a potent fantasy. Allegiance to it animates the lives of… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

A Close Encounter with a Flame-Bright Egyptian Vulture - Facts So Romantic

Socotra’s gregarious Egyptian vultures are a bright spot in an otherwise sobering global story.Photograph by Oriol AlamanyOn a bright… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

NASA Is on the Cusp of a New Era

Jennifer Heldmann laughed when I pointed out that she used the word “unprecedented” five times in a recent paper. “I should… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Can a Cat Have an Existential Crisis?

When I first adopted Lucas nine years ago from a cat rescue organization in Washington, D.C., his name was Puck. “Because he’s… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Torn Muscle? Hold the Drugs or Surgery—Massage May Be the Best Medicine - Facts So Romantic

Massage therapy could treat a wide range of ailments, from peripheral artery disease to inflammatory myopathy.Image by Bartek Zyczynski… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Why AI Needs a Genome - Issue 108: Change

It’s Monday morning of some week in 2050 and you’re shuffling into your kitchen, drawn by the smell of fresh coffee C-3PO has… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

NASA Is on the Cusp of a New Era - Issue 108: Change

Jennifer Heldmann laughed when I pointed out that she used the word “unprecedented” five times in a recent paper. “I should… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

All the Biomass on Earth - Issue 108: Change

All the Biomass of Earth, in One GraphicOur planet supports approximately 8.7 million species, of which over a quarter live in… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

A Lab of Her Own – Issue 108: Change

On a cold, dry Tuesday in December, 1940, Rita Levi-Montalcini rode a train from the station near her home in Turin, Italy, for 80… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Power of the Waves

Sea waves are among the world’s most misunderstood phenomena. When an incoming wave breaks on the shoreline, it appears as though… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

What Industrial Societies Get Wrong About Childhood - Issue 108: Change

Each year across the world, kids of roughly the same age are packed into classrooms and confined to desks with the intent of learning… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

The Power of the Waves - Issue 108: Change

Sea waves are among the world’s most misunderstood phenomena. When an incoming wave breaks on the shoreline, it appears as though… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

A Lab of Her Own - Issue 108: Change

On a cold, dry Tuesday in December, 1940, Rita Levi-Montalcini rode a train from the station near her home in Turin, Italy, for 80… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

Fantastic Beasts Brought to Life by the Wind

Many of us hit the beach to enjoy some sunshine or catch a wave. But for Dutch artist Theo Jansen it’s all about the wind. Jansen’s… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

What You’re Doing Is Proof of Quantum Theory

Nobody understands quantum mechanics,” Richard Feynman famously said. Long after Max Planck’s discovery in 1900 that energy comes… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 2 years ago

What Impossible Meant to Richard Feynman

Impossible! The word resonated throughout the large lecture hall. I had just finished describing a revolutionary concept for a new… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

Who Said Science and Art Were Two Cultures? – Issue 108: Change

On a May evening in 1959, C.P. Snow, a popular novelist and former research scientist, gave a lecture before a gathering of dons and… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

Fantastic Beasts Brought to Life by the Wind

Many of us hit the beach to enjoy some sunshine or catch a wave. But for Dutch artist Theo Jansen it’s all about the wind. Jansen’s… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

What Impossible Meant to Richard Feynman - Issue 108: Change

Impossible! The word resonated throughout the large lecture hall. I had just finished describing a revolutionary concept for a new… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

What You’re Doing Right Now Is Proof of Quantum Theory - Issue 108: Change

Nobody understands quantum mechanics,” Richard Feynman famously said. Long after Max Planck’s discovery in 1900 that energy comes… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

Fantastic Beasts Brought to Life by the Wind - Issue 108: Change

Many of us hit the beach to enjoy some sunshine or catch a wave. But for Dutch artist Theo Jansen it’s all about the wind. Jansen’s… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

It’s Not Irrational to Party Like It’s 1999

Must we always follow reason? Do I need a rational argument for why I should fall in love, cherish my children, enjoy the pleasures… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

How the Coronavirus Stays One Step Ahead of Us – Issue 108: Change

At first, no one looked twice at the new variant. Detected in South Africa in January 2021, the novel coronavirus lineage, called… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

Steven Pinker Has His Reasons

A few years ago, at the Princeton Club in Manhattan, I chanced on a memorable chat with the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. His… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago

How the sewage plant in our nation’s capital spins poop into fertilizer gold

I’m standing on an observation platform atop 24 colossal pressure cookers that belong to DC Water, the sewage treatment plant of… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 3 years ago