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Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture

An urban slum with people, horses and goats amidst debris, shacks and informal structures in the background.

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Poverty and development

Raising the threshold

The World Bank’s poverty line is inaccurate and out of date – an error that obscures the feebleness of market solutions

Attrishu Bordoloi

Four girls sitting on a riverbank, sitting in two groups of two; three upright and one lying down, with backpacks and bags nearby.

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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

A desert highway at dusk with cliffs and the moon visible and a rear-view mirror showing a road and sunset reflection behind.

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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

A cheetah cub playfully interacts with a brown dog on grass, with a toy in the background.

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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

A busy urban street with cars, a motorbike and a truck passing by a neon-lit building at sunset.

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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

Sepia-toned photo of a person in formal Victorian attire, standing with a slightly tilted head, against an ornate backdrop.

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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

A child in a pink raincoat jumping in a puddle on a city street on a rainy day with terraced houses in the background.

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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

A cupcake with pink icing topped with mealworms, surrounded by other cupcakes.

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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

Painting of an angel in an orange glow flying with small birds across a night sky over a cityscape and bare trees.

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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

Dried ground leaves being poured from a scoop into a container indoors.

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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

Black and white night photo of historic Gothic-style buildings with arched windows, towers and courtyards.

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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

Vintage sepia photo of a group of soldiers in hats and uniforms posed with a US flag.

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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