Science
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Deep time
The bookends of time
Nothing lasts forever: not humanity, not Earth, not the Universe. But finitude confers an indelible meaning to our lives
Thomas Moynihan
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Mathematics
Beyond causality
In order to bridge the yawning gulf between the humanities and the sciences we must turn to an unexpected field: mathematics
Gordon Gillespie
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Evolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes
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Space exploration
How the Moon became a place
For most of history, the Moon was regarded as a mysterious and powerful object. Then scientists made it into a destination
Danny Robb
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History of science
The birth of naturalism
The modern era is often seen as the triumph of science over supernaturalism. But what really happened is far more interesting
Peter Harrison
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Public health
Hearts and brains
Humans always end up with clogged arteries, right? That’s not what the lives of the Tsimane in the Amazon basin tell us
Ben Daitz
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes
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Biology
In praise of subspecies
To lump or to split? Deciding whether an animal is a species or subspecies profoundly influences our conservation priorities
Richard Smyth
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Chemistry
Chemical laws
Often dismissed as the poor cousin of the sciences, chemistry has revealed natural laws that illuminate our Universe
Vanessa A Seifert
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
23 minutes
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Stories and literature
Elegance and hustle
How French modernists from Proust to Mallarmé were alarmed and inspired by the voracious dynamism of the newspaper world
Max McGuinness
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Earth science and climate
The planetary fix
Despite decades of inaction we can avert the climate Hellocene and restore the atmosphere to keep our world habitable
Rob Jackson
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Bioethics
Moral resilience
Nurses experience deep suffering when they can’t act according to their moral compass. Our research shows a way forward
Cynda Hylton Rushton
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
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Stories and literature
Laboratories of the impossible
By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics
Joshua Roebke
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Deep time
Roaming rocks
Metamorphic rocks are our emissaries from the deep, travelling to alien realms and revealing the restless nature of Earth
Marcia Bjornerud
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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes
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Cosmology
Exploding the Big Bang
It was thought that science could tell us about the origins of the Universe. Today that great endeavour is in serious doubt
Daniel Linford
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Future of technology
A linkless internet
In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum
Collin Jennings
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Home
How to lose your home
In a changing climate, the instinct is to save everything you can. But maybe letting go is braver – and better for the future?
Dan Hancox
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Human evolution
The eugenicist of UNESCO
Why did Julian S Huxley, first director of the UN agency, think eugenics held the key to a more evolved, harmonious world?
Stefan Bernhardt-Radu
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Metaphysics
Many worlds, many selves
If it’s true that we live in a vast multiverse, then our understanding of identity, morality and even God must be reexamined
Emily Qureshi-Hurst
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Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
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Knowledge
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow
11 minutes