Issue_84

29 articles
  • Article Recirculation Lead Image

    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 […]
  • Krakauer_HERO

    The Hidden Life of Viruses

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

    Why COVID-19 Flare-Ups Will Keep Happening

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

    The Carouser and the Great Astronomer

    It’s a fine line between oblivion and immortality.
  • Article Recirculation Lead Image

    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 […]
  • Article Image

    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 […]

  • Article Image

    A Window on Africa’s Resilience

     We called Greg Carr the other day to talk about the spread of the coronavirus in Africa. Carr, who has been featured in Nautilus, is the founder of the Gorongosa Restoration Project, a partnership with the Mozambique government to revive Gorongosa National Park, that environmental treasure trove at the southern end of the Rift Valley. […]

  • Fuller_HERO

    What’s Missing in Pandemic Models

    Philosophy is needed to put the science of COVID-19 in perspective.

  • Livio_HERO

    How Science Trumps Denial

    Scientists putting their career and health on the line can take heart from Galileo.

  • Jones_HERO

    Don’t Fear the Robot

    I invented Roomba and assure you, robots won’t take over the world.

  • Davies_HERO

    We Aren’t Selfish After All

    In turbulent times, people go from “me” thinking to “we” thinking.