Audio
idea
Physics
Why we can stop worrying and love the particle accelerator
Joel Frohlich
essay
Neuroscience
The empty brain
Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer
Robert Epstein
idea
Economics
Conspicuous consumption is over. It’s all about intangibles now
Elizabeth Currid-Halkett
idea
Cognition and intelligence
What know-it-alls don’t know, or the illusion of competence
Kate Fehlhaber
essay
Language and linguistics
English is not normal
No, English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language
John McWhorter
idea
Social psychology
A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you
Clifton Mark
essay
Meaning and the good life
Indifference is a power
As legions of warriors and prisoners can attest, Stoicism is not grim resolve but a way to wrest happiness from adversity
Lary Wallace
essay
Work
Fuck work
Economists believe in full employment. Americans think that work builds character. But what if jobs aren’t working anymore?
James Livingston
essay
Childhood and adolescence
The play deficit
Children today are cossetted and pressured in equal measure. Without the freedom to play they will never grow up
Peter Gray
essay
Human reproduction
The macho sperm myth
The idea that millions of sperm are on an Olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy of human reproduction
Robert D Martin
essay
Biology
The obesity era
As the American people got fatter, so did marmosets, vervet monkeys and mice. The problem may be bigger than any of us
David Berreby
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Night school
New evidence suggests that we can learn while we sleep, but do we really want to put our hours of rest to work?
Kenneth Miller