/
/
Close-up photo of a circuit board with two CPU-like components showing classical portraits instead of standard chips.

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

Close-up photo of a circuit board with two CPU-like components showing classical portraits instead of standard chips.

essayPhilosophy of mind

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

Sasha Mudd

Microscopic image of vibrant purple and pink cellular structures with intricate patterns, resembling tissue under a microscope.

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

Collage of close-up photos of ants on greenery with varying poses; detailed view highlights ant features and textures.

videoEvolution

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

5 minutes

Black and white photo of a man typing on a typewriter while holding a baby, with a window and desk in the background.

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

Photo of a naked man in a vast sunflower field with a distant house under a clear blue sky.

videoPersonality

Searching for a local legend, a filmmaker stumbles into a tragicomedy

21 minutes

Digital collage featuring a silhouette of a person with arrows pointing outward over a blurred monochrome crowd.

videoPhilosophy of mind

Beyond the mind-body divide – on the ‘affective turn’ in the humanities

12 minutes

Black and white photo of a man in glasses animatedly speaking to a group gathered around him in an indoor setting.

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

Photo of an airship labelled R101 flying above a grassy field with cows and a tall structure in the background.

videoHistory of technology

Before the Hindenburg there was R101 – Britain’s ill-fated airship

17 minutes

A lush green landscape with hills and distant cattle under a cloudy sky, suggesting a tranquil rural setting.

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

Vintage-style photo of a cowboy in a saloon drinking from a mug held by a saloon girl holding a gun at the bar.

videoRituals and celebrations

At an Old West theme park, tourists play in a past that never existed

14 minutes

Dried red mushrooms with textured, wrinkled caps and visible gills, creating a detailed natural composition.

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

Photo of a man with closed eyes wearing headphones, appearing focused, against a blurred green background.

videoProgress and modernity

Indonesia is building a new capital city. What’s being lost?

19 minutes

Classical marble busts in a museum setting with focus on a detailed male figure in the background.

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

Abstract painting of a swirling black hole in space with colourful cosmic dust and light patterns.

essayAstronomy

Cosmic amnesia

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

Richard Dyer

Painting of a spectacled owl with bright yellow eyes against a dark background, highlighting its feathers and beak.

videoMetaphysics

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

14 minutes

Vintage photo showing a woman in a retro futuristic kitchen operating a round appliance with a clear dome lid.

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

Marble painting of a peacock beside a pedestal with a sphere, abstract shapes in the background.

videoHistory of technology

The millennia-long history of our obsession with fake marble

22 minutes

Painting of a man walking on a path through a hilly landscape away from a town, with a bird flying overhead, both casting long shadows on the ground.

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

Photo of a scene from a film showing a soldier in muddy gear behind sandbags in a jungle, reflected on an iPad screen.

videoTechnology and the self

Are we ever really done seeing a movie? On ‘Platoon’ and memory

10 minutes

Two children engrossed in watching a cartoon on TV in a dimly lit room with curtains and a table.

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

Medieval painting of two men riding a donkey, a man is in a window, script beneath, with decorative clouds overhead.

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

Illustration of a robot reading with a thought bubble showing ancient cave paintings of hunters and a deer.

videoPhilosophy of mind

Could there ever be a viable test for artificial consciousness?

6 minutes

Medieval painting of a man in a bath, attended by various people under a tree with heart-shaped leaves.

essayHistory

Medieval mental health

Saffron and ostrich liver were prescribed but so were exercise, gardens, animals, socialising, and music

Katherine Harvey

Painting of three figures with a flag on a dot-patterned background in red, yellow, purple and white.

videoArt

Meet the Aboriginal Australian artists painting over the colonial past

11 minutes

The imprint of a hand, made with black ink on beige paper, showing both the thin and wide creases on the palm and fingers.

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