Intelligent, devoted, alien – parrots are unlike any other pet. But what does the complex human-avian bond say about us? | Continue reading
The California School for the Deaf (CSD) is a free school in Fremont and Riverside for deaf and hard-of-hearing students between the ages of three and 21. In A View from the Window, the US director Chris Filippone and the Iranian director Azar Kafaei observe a third-grade class a … | Continue reading
Long before Facebook and Instagram, there were diaries and scrapbooks: the urge to share is neither new nor narcissistic | Continue reading
It’s difficult to test whether poverty relief actually works. Do randomised controlled trials provide a scientific measure? | Continue reading
Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 CE, Pompeii was a thriving Roman port city and commercial hub near modern-day Naples, and home to an estimated 15,000 people. Closer to the mountain's base and on the other side, the nearby town of Herculaneum, estimated popul … | Continue reading
It’s difficult to test whether poverty relief actually works. Do randomised controlled trials provide a scientific measure? | Continue reading
Capitalism is in crisis and needs help. Setting a maximum wage for corporate CEOs would be a good measure | Continue reading
In this febrile cultural moment filled with fear of the Other, horror has achieved the status of true art | Continue reading
Human dignity is a concept with remarkably shallow historical roots. Is that why it is so presently endangered? | Continue reading
Claims that the Universe is designed for humans raise far more troubling questions than they can possibly answer | Continue reading
Nudibranchs, also commonly known as sea slugs, are a group of snail-like sea invertebrates. Despite appearing more or less defenceless, nudibranchs broadcast their whereabouts with their flamboyant, brightly coloured bodies. From an evolutionary standpoint, it might seem like a c … | Continue reading
Christians long held a monopoly on virtue – until Pierre Bayle made the case for moral atheists, using comets and aliens | Continue reading
Claims that the Universe is designed for humans raise far more troubling questions than they can possibly answer | Continue reading
From to Siri to subways to customer service calls, pre-recorded and robotic voices are becoming an increasingly inescapable part of the human experience. In this short animation from StoryCorps, the US author, historian and broadcaster Studs Terkel (1912–2008) reflects on this tr … | Continue reading
What does the utopia of an all-female society in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1915 novel Herland have to say to us now? | Continue reading
Human dignity is a concept with remarkably shallow historical roots. Is that why it is so presently endangered? | Continue reading
John Locke took part in administering the slave-owning colonies. Does that make him, and liberalism itself, hypocritical? | Continue reading
Don’t become your own pharaoh: The Sabbath is the most radical commandment in a time of total work | Continue reading
In her short film Mobilize, Caroline Monnet – a Canadian filmmaker and artist of French and Algonquin origin – uses archival documentary footage to honour the restless diligence of Canada's indigenous people. Given access to more than 700 films from the National Film Board of Can … | Continue reading
Don’t become your own pharaoh: The Sabbath is the most radical commandment in a time of total work | Continue reading
Directed by the pioneering UK documentarian Richard Leacock, Frames of Reference is a slick and surreal dive into physics fundamentals and, in particular, why everything is indeed relative. Produced for high-school physics classes, the 1960 film features the physics professors Pa … | Continue reading
From a very early age, children learn to talk to themselves. That voice in your head is the thing that makes you, you | Continue reading
How industrialisation and individualism corroded social and communal ties, leading to a new language of loneliness | Continue reading
John Locke took part in administering the slave-owning colonies. Does that make him, and liberalism itself, hypocritical? | Continue reading
Fake miniatures depicting Islamic science have found their way into the most august of libraries and history books. How? | Continue reading
In Orgesticulanismus, the Belgian animator Mathieu Labaye pays tribute to his late father Benoît Labaye, who had limited mobility due to multiple sclerosis before he died in 2006. What starts out quietly, with a recording of Benoît’s personal manifesto on the intersection of move … | Continue reading
Fake miniatures depicting Islamic science have found their way into the most august of libraries and history books. How? | Continue reading
We are neither angels above bodily pleasures nor beasts slavishly following them, but bring body and soul to everything we do | Continue reading
Know thyself is not the only advice from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: also be noble, hope, and don’t look down on others | Continue reading
Sicily’s mafia sprang from the growing global market for lemons – a tale with sour parallels for consumers today | Continue reading
The idea that millions of sperm are on an Olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy of human reproduction | Continue reading
In Lay Bare, the UK experimental filmmaker and animator Paul Bush assembles thousands of close-up photographs of some 500 people – young and old, from around the globe – into a transfixing stop-motion style animation, which he describes as ‘a composite portrait of humanity’. Each … | Continue reading
Say you could make a thousand digital replicas of yourself – should you? What happens when you want to get rid of them? | Continue reading
We know music is pleasurable, the question is why? Many answers have been proposed: perhaps none are quite right | Continue reading
Sicily’s mafia sprang from the growing global market for lemons – a tale with sour parallels for consumers today | Continue reading
If other humans are beyond our comprehension, what hope is there for understanding the minds of animals, aliens or AI? | Continue reading
One emotion inspired our greatest achievements in science, art and religion. We can manipulate it – but why do we have it? | Continue reading
Are the mysteries of reality within the grasp of science? Or does a strictly empirical, Western materialist approach fail to properly consider the role of humans as observers? In this video from the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth (ICE), the US theoretica … | Continue reading
Drugs quell pain, boost focus, and enable euphoria, but they also occlude agency and compromise self-development | Continue reading
We know music is pleasurable, the question is why? Many answers have been proposed: perhaps none are quite right | Continue reading
Since Instagram launched in 2010, its visual filters have allowed users to alter scenes from their everyday lives with increasing sophistication and processing power. For his short video Outside, the Russian graphic illustrator and motion designer Vladimir Tomin was inspired by I … | Continue reading
The fantasy of living forever is just a fig leaf for the fear of death – and comes at great personal cost | Continue reading
Twin sisters Wei and Yan and their younger brother Won are left on their own when their father is imprisoned for manslaughter. Like other children from poor families in China whose parents have ended up in prison or executed, the Zhang siblings face a bleak future. The children o … | Continue reading
Want to build an elevator into space? Look to the bounty of biological life for tips on mechanical engineering | Continue reading
The idea that nature is a humming, complex, clockwork machine has been around for centuries. Is it due for a revival? | Continue reading
Wittgenstein analysed the way we use language. Marcuse declared his work politically irrelevant. Is it? | Continue reading
Too many depictions of autistic people rely on tired clichés. The neurotypical world needs to take note of our own voices | Continue reading
Want to build an elevator into space? Look to the bounty of biological life for tips on mechanical engineering | Continue reading