Brian Gallagher
Why We Had to Change the Meaning of Nothing
Nothing” isn’t what it used to be. It used to be something self-evident: the opposite, or the absence, of something. We still use the word this way colloquially, of course. When I’m asked, on the sidewalk, if I can spare some change or a dollar, I say, if I have neither, “Sorry, I got nothing.” […]
The Problem with the Mutation-Centric View of Cancer
How risk-assessments of cancer go wrong.
Are You Downplaying Luck’s Role in Your Life?
When we succeed, we often take that success, in retrospect, to be the result of suffering that liquid trinity of blood, sweat, and tears. Perhaps fortune favored you here and there but, by and large, it was your effort and talent—not contingency—that won the day. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join […]
The Pernicious Myth of Willpower
It turns out “willpower” is not a valid psychological construct.
The $1 Billion Misunderstanding of Aging
Robert Conquest, a historian of Soviet Russia and a poet, once summarized Shakespeare’s 28-line poem, “The Seven Ages of Man,” in five lines. They go like this: Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Seven Ages: first puking and mewlingThen very pissed off with your schooling.Then fucks and then fights. […]
Make Concrete Roman Again!
The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder can be charmingly self-deprecating. He attempted, in the 1st century A.D., to curate all ancient knowledge in his Natural History, yet he described its 37 volumes to his close friend’s son, Titus, the Emperor of Rome, as having “such inferior importance.” To Pliny, they did “not admit of the […]
How to Defuse Offensive Speech
The claim that speech can be violence is dangerous, it is argued, because it exacerbates the emotional vulnerability that’s already rampant in the “Internet generation,” of which today’s undergraduates are a part.Image by Eduard Bezembinder / Flickr Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . If you Google “It’s been emotional,” […]
Why Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Refuses to Die
If you want to investigate what could attack the Red Spot and make it disappear, you not only have to worry about what’s attacking the kinetic energy, like friction; you also have to worry about something that turns out to be more important—what’s attacking the potential energy. There’s a well-known reason why the potential energy […]
How to Weed Creationism Out of Schools
The problem with high school biology teachers.
It’s Not Romantic Anymore to Say That Plants Have Brain-like Systems
Last month, when the mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, presided over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, he gave a speech that would go viral. In it, he rebuked the South’s long-nurtured tendency—expressed in slogans like, “Heritage, not hate”—to romanticize the Confederacy. “We shouldn’t romanticize Confederate monuments,” read a recent letter […]