Raising the threshold
The World Bank’s poverty line is inaccurate and out of date – an error that obscures the feebleness of market solutions
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Neuroscience
Why nothing matters
It took centuries for people to embrace the zero. Now it’s helping neuroscientists understand how the brain perceives absences
Benjy Barnett
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Thinkers and theories
The necessity of Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum’s philosophy is dynamic and challenging, but also elegant and lucidly written: she is the thinker of our time
Brandon Robshaw
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Poverty and development
How Kerala got rich
Fifty years ago it was one of India’s poorest states, now it is now one of the richest. How did Kerala do it?
Tirthankar Roy & K Ravi Raman
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Personality
The highly sensitive person
Those with this little-known trait think more deeply and feel more empathy. But they also deal with significant challenges
Elaine Aron
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Neurodiversity
Autism’s missing women
Long believed to be particularly associated with males, new research is revolutionising our understanding of autism
Gina Rippon
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Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
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Physics
The stagnation of physics
Physicists today need to jettison the all-too-attractive myth that they are uncovering the hidden reality of our Universe
Adrien De Sutter
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War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
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Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
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Bioethics
Why the cat wags her tail
Here’s a puzzle: how could evolution favour such a costly, frivolous and fun activity as animal play?
Mathilde Tahar-Malaussena
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Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
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Poverty and development
How Kerala got rich
Fifty years ago it was one of India’s poorest states, now it is now one of the richest. How did Kerala do it?
Tirthankar Roy & K Ravi Raman
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
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Gender and identity
Requeering Wilde
Oscar Wilde is an icon of gay liberation from secrecy. But his life and his sexuality were not so simple – nor so binary
Sam Mills
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Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
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Philosophy of mind
Suffused with causality
Humans have a superpower that makes us uniquely capable of controlling the world: our ability to understand cause and effect
Mariel Goddu
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
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Food and drink
Adjust your disgust
The future of food is nutritious and sustainable – if we can overcome our instinctual revulsion to insects and lab-grown meat
Alexandra Plakias
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Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
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History of science
Legacy of the angels
When medieval scholars sought to understand the nature of angels, they unwittingly laid the foundations of modern physics
Rebekah Wallace
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Addiction
The kratom question
Millions are turning to an unregulated herbal extract to curb their opioid addiction. But do the risks outweigh the benefits?
Xi Chen
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History of ideas
Ghosts among the philosophers
Cambridge, home of analytic philosophy, was also a hotbed of psychical research. How did this spooky subject take root?
Matyáš Moravec
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
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War and peace
Could conquest return?
It’s only a century since US diplomats first persuaded the world that it’s wrong for countries to annex their neighbours
Kerry Goettlich
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
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Neuroscience
Why nothing matters
It took centuries for people to embrace the zero. Now it’s helping neuroscientists understand how the brain perceives absences
Benjy Barnett