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Never Say Wolf
How taboo language turned the wolf into a monster.
This Psychological Concept Could Be Shaping the Presidential Election
Could Warren’s political fate in 2020 turn on voters who think she would make a great president choosing another candidate because they think that’s what their neighbors will do?Photograph by Maverick Pictures / Shutterstock Not too long ago, I briefly met Elizabeth Warren in a restaurant in Cambridge, near Harvard, where I’m now a postdoc […]
The Cultural Distances Between Us
Mapping the world’s psychological traits.
The John, Paul, George, and Ringo of Genes
A pictorial map of the genes that unite all life.
Why Astrology Matters
Seeing meaning in the stars is a vital part of the scientific story.
How Ancient Light Reveals the Universe’s Contents
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog. In early 2003, Chuck Bennett learned the precise contents of the cosmos. By then, most cosmologists had concluded that the universe contains much more than meets the eye. Observations of pinwheeling galaxies suggested that scaffolds of invisible matter held their stars together, while a repulsive form of energy drove […]
We Are All Ancient Mapmakers
Why we still see the world like the mathematician and poet who first mapped it.
These Maps Reveal Earth’s Unspoiled Places
A revolution in archaeology is happening just when we need it most.
The Brain Cells That Guide Animals
New evidence the neural rules of navigation are universal.
The Brain Cells That Guide Animals
Virtual-reality experiments on fruit flies offer insight into how the brains of mammals, like us, might build maps of their world.Photograph by Tanya Wolff It may seem absurd to compare a tiny fruit fly’s brain to that of a majestic elephant. Yet it is the dream of many neuroscientists to find deep rules that very […]
