
Reason is more than a tool
If intelligence is merely optimisation then machines will outrun us. Kant tells us why human reason is so much more
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essayHistory
Medieval mental health
Saffron and ostrich liver were prescribed but so were exercise, gardens, animals, socialising, and music
Katherine Harvey

essayPolitics and government
Upend the trickle-down
Neoliberal policies have hollowed out democracies and spawned unchecked oligarchs. Grasping their structure points to a fix
Les Coleman

essayChildhood and adolescence
The bombarding of childhood
It’s not just screen time: the problem with children’s media is that it has become relentlessly hectic, loud and bright
Natalia Kucirkova

essayHistory of science
Penchants of the polymaths
The fathers of Islamic science hold lessons for students: breadth over specialisation, and never let constraints get in the way
Mariam Sabri

essayIllness and disease
Don’t use the ‘C-word’
A cancer diagnosis carries with it fear and upheaval. For many patients the cellular changes do not warrant the label
Matthew R Cooperberg

videoEvolution
Green tree ants have been successful for ages. Enter the imposters
5 minutes

essayStories and literature
Paternity is poetical
The notion that fatherhood and creativity are at odds is plain wrong, as both poetry and neuroscience are showing us
Daniel Swift

videoPersonality
Searching for a local legend, a filmmaker stumbles into a tragicomedy
21 minutes

videoPhilosophy of mind
Beyond the mind-body divide – on the ‘affective turn’ in the humanities
12 minutes

essayThinkers and theories
Reasoning together
Jürgen Habermas, the great defender of deliberative democracy, lived up to its demands: he never feared changing his mind
Emilie Prattico

videoHistory of technology
Before the Hindenburg there was R101 – Britain’s ill-fated airship
17 minutes

essayNature and landscape
Where a land ethic blooms
Caring for this planet entails decisions that are intimate, about our farms, our homes, our human and our wild neighbours
Craig Maier

videoRituals and celebrations
At an Old West theme park, tourists play in a past that never existed
14 minutes

essayPublic health
Toadstools and toxins
When I found the mushroom Amanita muscaria being sold in candy wrappers, I uncovered legal loopholes, dangerous dosages and more
Eric Leas

videoProgress and modernity
Indonesia is building a new capital city. What’s being lost?
19 minutes

essayKnowledge
He was probably right
Cicero’s life and thought are a testament to the idea of probabilia: we should be confident in our beliefs, but never certain
Massimo Pigliucci

essayAstronomy
Cosmic amnesia
A black hole rings like a struck bell, then settles into silence, forgetting almost everything about its history. Why?
Richard Dyer

videoMetaphysics
The alien worlds beside our own – a journey into animal eyes
14 minutes

essayComputing and artificial intelligence
Who will taste the cherries?
The computist has one dream: to debug the subjectivity out of all of human knowledge, creating a pure, frictionless world
Liam Spradlin

videoHistory of technology
The millennia-long history of our obsession with fake marble
22 minutes

essayDemography and migration
Chasing la dolce vita
Homecomings, fantasies, food and ghosts – how the myth of eternal return keeps the Italian diaspora in a state of longing
Ben Faccini

videoTechnology and the self
Are we ever really done seeing a movie? On ‘Platoon’ and memory
10 minutes

essayChildhood and adolescence
The bombarding of childhood
It’s not just screen time: the problem with children’s media is that it has become relentlessly hectic, loud and bright
Natalia Kucirkova

essayHistory of science
Penchants of the polymaths
The fathers of Islamic science hold lessons for students: breadth over specialisation, and never let constraints get in the way
Mariam Sabri

videoPhilosophy of mind
Could there ever be a viable test for artificial consciousness?
6 minutes

essayHistory
Medieval mental health
Saffron and ostrich liver were prescribed but so were exercise, gardens, animals, socialising, and music
Katherine Harvey

videoArt
Meet the Aboriginal Australian artists painting over the colonial past
11 minutes

essayHistory of science
Our eloquent hands
Physicians reject palmistry as nonsense. But reading the creases of our palms for hidden meaning is what doctors have always done
Alison Bashford
