Outbreak

29 articles
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    Philosophy

    Electrons May Very Well Be Conscious

    Panpsychists look at the many rungs on the complexity ladder of nature and see no obvious line between mind and no-mind.Illustration by Yurchanka Siarhei / Shutterstock This month, the cover of New Scientist ran the headline, “Is the Universe Conscious?” Mathematician and physicist Johannes Kleiner, at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy in Germany, told […]

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    Environment

    The Hidden Life of Viruses

    The COVID-19 crisis has made the dark energy of evolution visible.

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    Math

    Why COVID-19 Flare-Ups Will Keep Happening

    Like earthquakes and forest fires, outbreaks have a “heavy tail” of large events.

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    History

    The Carouser and the Great Astronomer

    It’s a fine line between oblivion and immortality.

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    History

    The Book That Invented the World

    Now that we’re corralled into our homes and apartments, something seems pre-modern in how our worlds have shrunk. Unlike past quarantines, we’re also connected by digital technology to the rest of the globe, calling to mind poet John Donne’s line from a 1633 poem about making “one little room an everywhere.” Donne came of age […]

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    Communication

    Why People Feel Misinformed, Confused, and Terrified About the Pandemic

     When I worked as a TV reporter covering health and science, I would often be recognized in public places. For the most part, the interactions were brief hellos or compliments. Two periods of time stand out when significant numbers of those who approached me were seeking detailed information: the earliest days of the pandemic that […]