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ISS Astronaut Spots Moon-like Mountains From Space

Earth and the moon have a shared geological history

Our Messy Cyborg Past and Future

Mike Jay, author of “Wireheads,” on the murky borderlands where the science and fiction of mind control meet

Latest Stories

Was Human Language Born Around the Campfire?

Our early human ancestors telling fireside stories may have propelled the development of speech by facilitating discussion of more abstract concepts


Read Stories from Our Newest Print Issue: The Stupid Issue

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The Elegance of a Stupid Question

Are computers in mathematics rewriting the definitions of stupid and smart?

The Resistance Is Here

They didn’t plan to be activists. But scientists have united to overturn Trump’s drastic cuts to science.

The Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience

Eugenics is rearing its ugly head again in today’s crucible of politics and culture

Why Forgive and Forget is Bad Advice

A conversation with MacArthur fellow Felipe de Brigard about how forgiveness reshapes the memory of atrocity

Envy at the Ballot Box

Majority voting may make us less willing to tolerate advantages for others

I’m Part of the Team Writing the Next Bible of Psychiatry—For the First Time, the DSM Will Use Biology to Understand Mental Disorders

Part of the challenge of finding a biomarker for mental illness is the environment’s significant influence

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Could AI Have Consciousness That Isn’t Human-Like?

Philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith on AI consciousness and existential risk

What a Picture of a Dog Has to Do with Reason and Logic

People who can’t see images in their minds challenge an old philosophical standby

What Makes Humans Stupid

It takes intelligence to get things spectacularly wrong. An essay on our undoing.