Issue_94
13 articles-
A Breakthrough in Measuring the Building Blocks of Nature
An artistic rendering of the quarks and gluons that make up a proton.Illustration by D. Dominguez / CERN In a recent experiment done at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, in Germany, physicist Alexey Grinin and his colleagues came a step closer to resolving one of the more significant puzzles to have arisen in […] -
Humans Have Rights and So Should Nature
An “Earth lawyer” argues for cultural transformation in environmental law. -
We Didn’t Evolve for This
A lesson from the animal kingdom on why COVID-19 is so deadly to humans. -
Why Humans Wage War
War is purposeful and calculating. The more organized we are, the better we get at fighting. -
We’re the Cosmic 1 Percent But Our Solar System Isn’t a Complete Weirdo
About half of all stars seem to have “super-Earth” planets on orbits closer to their stars than Mercury is to the Sun, but we don’t.Illustration by Vadim Sadovski / Shutterstock Is Earth unique? Once a grand philosophical question, it has, over the past two decades, become, with the discovery of thousands of planets around other […]
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How to Talk Like a Physicist
Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, who probably is the smartest person on her block, has fun in her latest video skewering the scientific braggart.Photograph by Francisco De Legarreta C. / Unsplash The other night I was out on our street with the neighbors for a socially distanced hang. My two-year-old daughter, mistaking the only street light […]
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Vaccines Are the Safest Medical Procedure We Have. Make Your Wager Wisely
All drugs and treatments have side effects, but vaccines in general have the fewest.Illustration by eamesBot / Shutterstock In the late 1650’s, the French polymath and renowned scientist Blaise Pascal, having undergone a religious experience that transformed him into something of a zealot, suggested the following logical strategy regarding belief in God: If there is […]
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Reading, That Strange and Uniquely Human Thing
How we evolved to read is a story of one creative species.
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The Sight of Jupiter and Saturn Together Is a Beautiful Thing
A conjunction is a good time to reflect on our cosmic heritage, and on the long shadows cast by the gas giants.Illustration by SN VFX / Shutterstock Today, December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will appear extremely close to each other in the sky, less than a tenth of a degree apart, about one fifth the […]
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How Sea Turtles Find Their Way
Whether you’re a sea turtle or a ship’s captain, you’ll need two tools—a map and a compass.
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Playing Go with Darwin
New research elevates evolution from a tactical process to one of strategic possibility. -
Over Time, Buddhism and Science Agree
Understanding the impermanence of everything—including ourselves.
