May 4, 2013

The Fundamental Incomprehensibility of Cats

The only thing I’ve benefited from cats is I don’t understand them.

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Question: Why do you have so many cats?

Ai Weiwei: I think it’s always a treasure for a human to understand another animal or another life. And of course we’ll never understand their language and their life, but still it’s such a privilege to live with them.

Question: Can you talk about if spending so much time around cats influences the way you live and work?

Ai Weiwei: The only thing I’ve benefited from cats is I don’t understand them.

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Split-screen image: left side has the words "an excerpt from" on a pale blue background; right side shows the book cover of "After the Spike," which explores how population and environment shape our future, by Dean Spears and Michael Geruso.

Books

More people, more pollution? Dispelling an environmental myth

In “After the Spike,” Dean Spears and Michael Geruso show why policy, rather than high population density, has the most significant impact on the environment.

Collage featuring photos of wildlife, ancient stone carvings, and a camel, with the text "THE NIGHTCRAWLER" at the top on a gray grid background—an homage to Sean B. Carroll’s explorations of nature and history.

Business

The hidden rules of business — according to nature

Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.

A radio telescope points at the night sky, where stars are arranged in the shape of a large question mark.

The Fermi Paradox has a terrifying answer: The Dark Forest

“We’ve sent out one or two little messages, but we certainly aren’t investing billions of dollars shouting out into the cosmos saying, “Hey, we are here. Come say hi.””

▸

13 min

—

with

David Kipping

Starts With A Bang

Jupiter endangers Earth, and may have extincted the dinosaurs

65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth. Not only did Jupiter not stop it, but it most likely caused the impact itself.

Illustration of a yellow flower placed inside an empty glass Coca-Cola bottle against a textured, light-colored background, subtly contrasting nature’s simplicity with symbols sometimes co-opted by extremism.

Mini Philosophy

The 4 psychological markers of ideological extremism

How many boxes do you tick?

Up Next

A Year on the Sun

The picture above is a composite of 25 images recorded in extreme ultraviolet light by the Solar Dynamics Observatory over the course of the past year.