Zach St. George
The World’s Most Inspirational Iceberg Isn’t What It Seems
The professional photographer who created a popular poster image takes it apart.
Why the Best Athletes All Have Their Own #PhelpsFace
On the second day of the Rio Olympics, American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th gold medal (he would go on to win four more), becoming the world’s most decorated Olympic athlete. The next day, Phelps revealed that he also has what may be the world’s best game face. While waiting for a semifinal race, […]
Did Preemies Make Humans Smart?
Our big-brained noggins require us to be born early so we can squeeze through a tight birth canal.
Are We in the Anthropocene Yet?
In the early 1990s, a few miles west of El Kef, a town in Tunisia, geologists set a small golden spike in between two layers of clay that remains there to this day. They wanted to mark the tiny yet striking layer of iridium—a hard, dense, silvery-white metal—sandwiched in the middle. It was deposited by […]
Should We All Be Helping Trees Relocate?
Torrey pines seem like they could use some human help. According to the U.S. Forest Service, they are the rarest pine species in North America, with fewer than 10,000 trees growing in the wild. They’re split between Santa Rosa Island, off California’s southern coast, and a small state forest perched on the coastal bluffs just […]
There’s Plenty of Space for One Trillion More Trees
Gregor Hintler had what seemed like a simple question: How many trees are there? As part of Plant for the Planet, a youth initiative that aimed to plant one billion trees in every country by 2020, he needed a way to figure out how many trees the planet could fit. But when he tried to […]
Curiosity Depends on What You Already Know
We seek novelty, but not too much.
The Case for Common Sense Gum-Control
To walk the streets of New York and think about all the little black spots on the sidewalks is a little like pondering the stars in the night sky: How many people must have walked this way, deciding at just this moment to spit out their gum? It’s almost beautiful, except that gum attracts rats, […]
Identity Is an Inside Joke
Why you laugh with your friends.
The World’s Most Inspirational Iceberg Is a Fake
What do the Volkswagen diesel scandal and the European migrant crisis have in common? They’ve both been referred to as the “tip of the iceberg.” The popular expression reflects the fact that, as impressive as the visible portion of an iceberg is, the vast majority of it (usually about 90%) is underwater. Over the past […]
