In the past quarter century, enrollment in college English departments has sunk like the Pequod in Moby Dick. Meanwhile enrollment… | Continue reading
Suppose aliens existed, and imagine that some of them had been watching our planet for its entire four and a half billion years. What… | Continue reading
In the past quarter century, enrollment in college English departments has sunk like the Pequod in Moby Dick. Meanwhile enrollment… | Continue reading
Everyone seems to be talking about the problems with physics: Peter Woit’s book Not Even Wrong, Lee Smolin’s The Trouble With… | Continue reading
I went to my neighbor’s house for something to eat yesterday.Think about this sentence. It’s pretty simple—English speakers… | Continue reading
To shield one’s pet hypothesis of an alien object by suggesting that it is not being taken seriously because of a flaw in how we… | Continue reading
Your brain has been altered, neurologically rewired as you acquired a particular skill. This renovation has left you with a specialized… | Continue reading
What do the Volkswagen diesel scandal and the European migrant crisis have in common? They’ve both been referred to as the “tip… | Continue reading
Not since World War II has there been as great a threat to mental health as the current COVID-19 pandemic, according to Aiden James.… | Continue reading
Your brain has been altered, neurologically rewired as you acquired a particular skill. This renovation has left you with a specialized… | Continue reading
Not since World War II has there been as great a threat to mental health as the current COVID-19 pandemic, according to Aiden James.… | Continue reading
Carl Hart is a neuroscientist and Ziff Professor of Psychology at Columbia University—he was the first tenured African-American… | Continue reading
To shield one’s pet hypothesis of an alien object by suggesting that it is not being taken seriously because of a flaw in how we… | Continue reading
It’s encouraging to know that merely paying attention to the details of your environment can make you a little more rational.Illustration… | Continue reading
It’s encouraging to know that merely paying attention to the details of your environment can make you a little more rational.Illustration… | Continue reading
Out of all of the infinite numbers in the world, there are precious few that are given their own letter from the all-too-finite Greek… | Continue reading
On a trip to Warsaw, Poland, in 2019, Richard Freund confronted the history of resistance against the Nazis at a Holiday Inn. Freund,… | Continue reading
On a trip to Warsaw, Poland, in 2019, Richard Freund confronted the history of resistance against the Nazis at a Holiday Inn. Freund,… | Continue reading
This essay first appeared in our “Home” issue way back in 2013. But somehow feels so timely today. Halfway through director Alfonso… | Continue reading
You’ve been hoaxed.The hoax seems harmless enough. A few thousand AI researchers have claimed that computers can read and write… | Continue reading
This essay first appeared in our “Home” issue way back in 2013. But somehow feels so timely today. Halfway through director Alfonso… | Continue reading
You’ve been hoaxed.The hoax seems harmless enough. A few thousand AI researchers have claimed that computers can read and write… | Continue reading
On a trip to Warsaw, Poland, in 2019, Richard Freund confronted the history of resistance against the Nazis at a Holiday Inn. Freund,… | Continue reading
One of the kids in my house feels bad for people named Karen. He announced it at the dinner table. “They’re not all annoying,… | Continue reading
An old dog, it turns out, can teach humans new tricks. “In recent years the dog has grown to be one of the most important animals… | Continue reading
It’s 2050 and you’re due for your monthly physical exam. Times have changed, so you no longer have to endure an orifices check,… | Continue reading
An old dog, it turns out, can teach humans new tricks. “In recent years the dog has grown to be one of the most important animals… | Continue reading
One of the kids in my house feels bad for people named Karen. He announced it at the dinner table. “They’re not all annoying,… | Continue reading
It’s 2050 and you’re due for your monthly physical exam. Times have changed, so you no longer have to endure an orifices check,… | Continue reading
An old dog, it turns out, can teach humans new tricks. “In recent years the dog has grown to be one of the most important animals… | Continue reading
It’s 2050 and you’re due for your monthly physical exam. Times have changed, so you no longer have to endure an orifices check,… | Continue reading
An old dog, it turns out, can teach humans new tricks. “In recent years the dog has grown to be one of the most important animals… | Continue reading
One of the kids in my house feels bad for people named Karen. He announced it at the dinner table. “They’re not all annoying,… | Continue reading
This article first appeared online in our “Symmetry” issue in May, 2014. On an evening in January A.D. 532, pandemonium broke… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.Since they can’t prod actual universes as they inflate and… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.Since they can’t prod actual universes as they inflate and… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.Since they can’t prod actual universes as they inflate and… | Continue reading
Relief coursed through me last week when I learned my 2-year-old daughter’s daycare provider got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.… | Continue reading
Relief coursed through me last week when I learned my 2-year-old daughter’s daycare provider got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.… | Continue reading
Under a coral ledge, a day octopus and a brown-marbled grouper meet. The grouper was there first, as if waiting, and they emerge together;… | Continue reading
This article first appeared online in our “Symmetry” issue in May, 2014. On an evening in January A.D. 532, pandemonium broke… | Continue reading
Under a coral ledge, a day octopus and a brown-marbled grouper meet. The grouper was there first, as if waiting, and they emerge together;… | Continue reading
This article first appeared online in our “Symmetry” issue in May, 2014. On an evening in January A.D. 532, pandemonium broke… | Continue reading
Relief coursed through me last week when I learned my 2-year-old daughter’s daycare provider got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.… | Continue reading
This past summer, my wife and I ventured to an area near Mount Adams in southwestern Washington state to census bumblebees. We camped… | Continue reading
This past summer, my wife and I ventured to an area near Mount Adams in southwestern Washington state to census bumblebees. We camped… | Continue reading
At a moment when vaccines promise to end the coronavirus pandemic, emerging new variants threaten to accelerate it. The astonishingly… | Continue reading
The central university library at Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, is an imposing, towered building known affectionately for being… | Continue reading