Lens_ideas
417 articles-
The Worrisome Rise of NFTs
An astrobiologist says non-fungible tokens do not bode well for our species’s future. -
Ignorance: How It Drives Science, a New Podcast
In this premier episode, the hosts ask astronomer Jill Tarter who or what’s out there. -
It’s Not Irrational to Party Like It’s 1999
Contrary to what the philosopher said, passion can be a slave to reason. -
Steven Pinker Has His Reasons
The psychologist unpacks rationality and denies being a guru to the capitalist elite. -
How Tycoons Created the Dinosaur
The story of dinosaurs is also the story of capitalism.
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Weird Dreams Train Our Brains to Be Better Learners
For many of us over the last year and more, our waking experience has, you might say, lost a bit of its variety. We spend more time with the same people, in our homes, and go to fewer places. Our stimuli these days, in other words, aren’t very stimulating. Too much day-to-day routine, too much […]
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How to Build a Society for All to Enjoy
To make social structures more equal, we can’t blind ourselves to genetics.
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We Have to Talk About Doubt
How to tell the difference between scientific and conspiratorial skepticism.
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How I Escaped My Troubles Through Science
My life in theoretical physics took a fateful turn after 9/11.
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The Electromagnetic Force of Fridge Magnets
An illustrated guide to the universal laws in your kitchen. -
How Maxwell’s Demon Continues to Startle Scientists
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . The universe bets on disorder. Imagine, for example, dropping a thimbleful of red dye into a swimming pool. All of those dye molecules are going to slowly spread throughout the water.Physicists quantify this tendency to […] -
Do We Have Free Will? Maybe It Doesn’t Matter
Belief is a special kind of human power. Agustin Fuentes, an anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame, eloquently claims as much in his recent book Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being. It’s the “most prominent, promising, and dangerous capacity humanity has evolved,” he writes, the power to “see and feel […] -
I Have Come to Bury Ayn Rand
A prominent evolutionary biologist slays the beast of Individualism. -
How Intelligent Could Life Be Without Natural Selection?
Don’t be surprised if alien life forms are a lot like us.
