Biology | Environment
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Chapter one
Tides
Ideas | Philosophy
Evil Triumphs in These Multiverses, and God Is Powerless
How scientific cosmology puts a new twist on the problem of evil.
Culture | Fiction
The Periodic Stranger
When exile becomes home.
Biology | Animals
The Evolutionary Pull of Ocean Tides
How animals’ biological clocks turn with the tides.
Chapter two
Parallels
Culture | Psychology
This Is My Brain on Rock Climbing
The neurology of dread and desire on Half Dome.
Biology | Genetics
Why Evolution Is Ageist
Genetic mutation changes from adaptive to dangerous after reproductive age.
Ideas | Psychology
If You Think You’re a Genius, You’re Crazy
Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore.
Numbers | Technology
Virtual Reality Poses the Same Riddles as the Cosmic Multiverse
Alt-realities, whether cosmic or VR, would undermine the laws of physics.
Chapter three
Day-to-Day
Matter | Physics
A Brief History of the Grand Unified Theory of Physics
It’s the best of times or the worst of times in physics.
Matter | Physics
The Fifth Force of Physics Is Hanging by a Thread
As scientists chase tantalizing hints of a new force, modern physics hangs in the balance.
Biology | Mortality
Will 90 Become The New 60?
As our lifespans have increased, so too have our active years. Can that go on?
Culture | Physics
What This Drawing Taught Me About Four-Dimensional Spacetime
Stuck in his research, a cosmologist finds a hint in an intricate drawing.
Chapter four
Backyards & Starscapes
Culture | Psychology
Why Power Brings Out Your True Self
Are you a tyrant or a servant?
Biology | Evolution
Survival of the Friendliest
It’s time to give the violent metaphors of evolution a break.
Biology | Environment
The Strange Blissfulness of Storms
Is there a biochemical reason that extreme weather makes us happy?
Matter | Physics
Can Dark Energy Kill Galaxies?
The surprising importance of a dark-energy selection effect.
Culture | History
Meet Seven Extraordinary Women Scientists
A neuroscientist turned designer has created a unique celebration of women’s history month.
Chapter five
Zen
Culture | Psychology
Why You Feel the Urge to Jump
The science and philosophy of looking down from a high place.
Culture | Psychology
Darwin Was a Slacker and You Should Be Too
Many famous scientists have something in common—they didn’t work long hours.
Culture | Neuroscience
Noise Is a Drug and New York Is Full of Addicts
We may complain about a defining feature of the city, but we also feed off it.
Biology | Neuroscience
Ingenious: Lisa Feldman Barrett
Inside a new theory of emotions that spotlights how the brain works.
Culture | Environment
The Woman Who Gave Us the Science of Normal Life
Before Rachel Carson there was Ellen Swallow Richards, MIT’s first female student.
Related Facts So Romantic
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” —Jules Verne
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Culture
Is Violence Declining Because We’re Evolving More Patience?
Something like 10,000 years ago, near Lake Turkana in Kenya, a group of hunter-gathers went on a raid, sparing a few young men and women to take as the spoils of victory. At the scene were…
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Biology
This Cancer Treatment Extends Life Without Pills, Radiation, or Surgery
What would go through your mind if I told you that you had cancer? Perhaps you’d wonder how you got it, or how you were going to get rid of it. Maybe you’d worry about whether you could…
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Matter
The Quest for Unity Is Not Something Physics Is Cut Out to Do
In physics, we like theories that are simple and broad-ranging. By “simple,” physicists usually mean a mathematical theory that rests on as few postulates as possible; by “broad-ranging,”…
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Ideas
What Donald Trump Teaches Us About the Fermi Paradox
Reports of U.F.O. sightings were commonplace in the 1950s. The C.I.A. recently came clean, on Twitter, concerning its role: “Reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ‘50s? It…
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