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Photo of a car’s interior at night with motion blur, showing a driver’s arm steering through illuminated streets.

Katie’s story

Frontotemporal dementia is rare and ruthless. When it robbed Katie of her husband at 33, his story became her life’s work

​

Photo of a car’s interior at night with motion blur, showing a driver’s arm steering through illuminated streets.

essayIllness and disease

Katie’s story

Frontotemporal dementia is rare and ruthless. When it robbed Katie of her husband at 33, his story became her life’s work

Lynn Hallarman

Popular this month

A woman and four children inside a car, under an orange sky. A boy is in the driver’s seat, the woman in the passenger seat.

essayMetaphysics

Reality is evil

Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed. It is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe

Drew M Dalton

Photo of an astronaut beside a large boulder on the Moon’s surface with lunar rover in the background against a dark sky.

essayPalaeontology

Life happened fast

It’s time to rethink how we study life’s origins. It emerged far earlier, and far quicker, than we once thought possible

Michael Marshall

People relaxing in a lush garden with inflatable flamingos and laptops by a pool.

essayProgress and modernity

Authenticate thyself

Data has created a new and paradoxical social order: the promise of emancipation is made possible by classifying everything

Marion Fourcade & Kieran Healy

A lively classroom with smiling people, one person standing while holding a paper, posters in the background.

essayKnowledge

Socrates would be pleased

With a class of college students and inmates, teaching philosophy in prison is a rowdy, honest and hopeful provocation

Jay Miller

Painting of three 18th-century men in discussion, one holding an illustration. A dog lies on the floor.

essayVirtues and vices

David Hume vs literature

Hume distrusted literature and worked to discredit character sketches as legitimate forms of philosophy

Katie Ebner-Landy

Close-up digital illustration of a lysosome showing detailed proteins in various colours on its surface.

videoBiology

Dive deep into an egg cell to see how ageing reboots when a new life begins

2 minutes

A scientist standing a large metal tunnel with hexagonal gold mirrors at the end of it.

essayCosmology

The Big Bang’s big gaps

The current theory for the origin of the Universe is remarkably successful yet full of explanatory holes. Expect surprises

Jim Baggott

Photo of a smiling boy with short hair outdoors, viewed through a digital camera frame. Background shows a fence and greenery.

videoChildhood and adolescence

​​A neglected Dominican sugar town, as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old local

11 minutes

A video camera reflected in sunglasses with a scenic view of water and hills in the background.

videoGlobal history

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, a young couple discovers a strange, newly open world

18 minutes

An arid landscape with rocky ground, sparse green shrubs and distant hills under a cloudy sky.

essayProgress and modernity

The shadow of prosperity

A shrub meant to end hunger now chokes Kenya’s farmlands. It’s a parable of how visions of progress can outgrow their promises

Samuel F Derbyshire

A large, colourful mural on a building, depicting people, with two individuals walking by on the pavement.

essayChildhood and adolescence

Society needs hope

Youths around the world are in a profound crisis of despair. Adults must help them to believe that the future will be better

Carol Graham

Silhouette of a bird on a branch against a golden sunset sky.

essayAnimals and humans

Life thrums with music

Listen to the boundless sounds of nature, the great animal orchestra, whose songs imbue the world with fresh meaning

Jay Griffiths

Illustration of a robotic nanodevice navigating in a blood vessel with red and white blood cells.

essayFuture of technology

Techno-pipe dreams

Thirty years ago, nanotech was about to change everything. Let’s not get tricked again by Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

Philip Ball

Ancient Chinese painting of a scholar in robes resting on a mat outdoors by cliffs and sparse vegetation on brown silk canvas.

essayMetaphysics

Essence is fluttering

As Zhuangzi saw, there is no immutably true self. Instead our identity is as dynamic and alive as a butterfly in flight

Alexander Douglas

A woman and four children inside a car, under an orange sky. A boy is in the driver’s seat, the woman in the passenger seat.

essayMetaphysics

Reality is evil

Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed. It is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe

Drew M Dalton

Painting of a black bird with a red tail on a white tree branch set against a blue sky and yellow landscape.

videoNature and landscape

Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons

7 minutes

People relaxing in a lush garden with inflatable flamingos and laptops by a pool.

essayProgress and modernity

Authenticate thyself

Data has created a new and paradoxical social order: the promise of emancipation is made possible by classifying everything

Marion Fourcade & Kieran Healy

Blurry night photo through car window showing police lights and a figure, creating a dramatic scene with blue lighting.

videoDemography and migration

The volunteers who offer a last line of care for migrants at a contentious border

30 minutes

Photo of an astronaut beside a large boulder on the Moon’s surface with lunar rover in the background against a dark sky.

essayPalaeontology

Life happened fast

It’s time to rethink how we study life’s origins. It emerged far earlier, and far quicker, than we once thought possible

Michael Marshall

3D colour spectrum graph with X, Y, Z axes and a colourful curved surface on a black background, digital rendering.

videoMathematics

After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour

20 minutes

Vintage black and white photo of a woman in a garden sitting beside a large urn with a sleeping dog lying nearby.

essayFamily life

Glorious and mundane

I once exalted in the extraordinary. But as I’ve learned from Virginia Woolf, indelible beauty is also found in the everyday

Diana Saverin

A lively classroom with smiling people, one person standing while holding a paper, posters in the background.

essayKnowledge

Socrates would be pleased

With a class of college students and inmates, teaching philosophy in prison is a rowdy, honest and hopeful provocation

Jay Miller

Photo of an elderly woman resting her forehead on a large stone bust outdoors near a decaying concrete structure.

videoHistory

In Stalin’s home city in Georgia, generations clash over his legacy

20 minutes

Abstract sketch of a cityscape with buildings, cars and patterns in pencil and ink.

essayArt

Witty wotty dashes

Doodles are the emanations of our pixillated minds, freewheeling into dissociation, graphology, and radical openness

James Reath

Photo of a person in white walking along a cliffside path near a stone structure with a scenic landscape view.

videoArchitecture

Steep climbs lead to sacred spaces carved high into the cliffs of Ethiopia

9 minutes

Black and white photo of a thoughtful woman and two children, one holding a crying baby, indoors near wooden doors.

essayEthics

Why love matters most

For Iris Murdoch, morality is not about duties and rules but stopping our ego fantasies and attending to others with love

Cathy Mason

Watercolour and ink collage with a portrait, handwritten text saying ‘Hey, I’m important’ and a small beach photo on top right.

videoConsciousness and altered states

How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head

6 minutes

A surfer in a wetsuit emerging from a large turquoise wave with white foam crashing around.

essaySports and games

The secret

At the heart of surfing, whether you’re a kook or a famous charger, is the pursuit of moments so pure they clean you out

M M Owen