A detailed painting of a historic battle scene with soldiers, horses and weapons in action, featuring vibrant colours and intricate detail.

Horrible, unmanly, indispensable

Renaissance Italians saw the gun as the Devil’s work. But soon they embraced this unchivalrous – and necessary – weapon

essayHistory of technology

Renaissance Italians saw the gun as the Devil’s work. But soon they embraced this unchivalrous – and necessary – weapon

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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

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essayTechnology and the self

Deskilling the body

We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending

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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

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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

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essayThe ancient world

How to be a (Roman) man

Cicero’s ideal of manly virtue stressed the performance of self-control and bravery, not boastful egotism and domination

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There’s nothing inherently good in the ‘natural’, argues Bruno Latour

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essayKnowledge

The ladder of knowledge

What we claim as ‘true’ is not a ceiling we are forever failing to reach but something that changes as we climb toward it

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Hohle Fels cave illuminates the rich symbolic world of Ice Age humans

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Photo of four women in desert gear walking across a dry landscape, carrying equipment with vehicles in the background.

videoWar and peace

The all-female team defusing ISIS’s deadly landmine legacy

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essayTechnology and the self

Deskilling the body

We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending

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Photo of two people thatching a large conical roof with ladders surrounded by a green landscape and trees.

videoSpirituality

The fragile majesty of the Buganda royal tombs in Uganda

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essayMetaphysics

Is everything conscious?

If the question makes no sense to you, try spending some time with the principle of sufficient reason

Sam Kimpton-Nye

Black and white photo of a woman in sunglasses speaking at a podium with microphones.

essayProgress and modernity

Barbara Ward’s vision

She was among the first to argue that prosperity, equality and the protection of nature are inseparable planetary goals

Or Rosenboim

Illustration of an ancient city layout surrounded by water and farmland viewed from above.

videoCities

Manhattan’s evolution over centuries captured via meticulous animation

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A person in black clothing and a hat by a bridge and stairs in a historic area, with buildings and signs in the background.

essayRace and ethnicity

The ghetto on the lagoon

Sixteenth-century Venice wanted to expel its Jews but couldn’t do without them. Its compromise was the world’s first ghetto

Alexander Lee

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An Iranian couple seek out the recipient of their late son’s heart

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Test tubes with various coloured liquids against a blurred background in a laboratory setting.

essayPhilosophy of science

How to assemble science

Humanity produces a staggering amount of new knowledge every day. The question is how to make sense of it all

Helen Pearson

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A traditional Inuit game of balance and strength, stylishly captured

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A life in episodes

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Graffiti on an underpass wall reads “PUT THE GUN DOWN” with arrows pointing down, illuminated by lights. Wet pavement in foreground.

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Life on a hair trigger

A world of violence sustains itself through guns, poverty and other social ills, but also through the minds it creates

Megan Kang

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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essayThinkers and theories

Reasoning together

Jürgen Habermas, the great defender of deliberative democracy, lived up to its demands: he never feared changing his mind

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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

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