Culture & Religion — April 15, 2010

Lines of Genius

Elif Batuman unearths seven unproduced screenplays written by famous intellectuals, including Nabokov’s story of a sexually frustrated London circus dwarf, and Sartre’s failed Freud epic.

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A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Elif Batuman looks at seven unproduced screenplays written by famous intellectuals, including Nabokov’s “phenomenally depressing” story of a sexually frustrated London circus dwarf, and Sartre’s failed Freud epic. Other would-be screenwriters include Winston Churchill, Aldous Huxley, Georges Bataille, Russian artist Kasimir Malevich, and Frankfurt school philosophers Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A wooden box filled with assorted old black-and-white photographs and postcards.

Neuropsych

What makes a memory real?

Changing the narrative on false memories might be surprisingly simple.

A large telescope is housed inside an observatory dome, surrounded by people.

Starts With A Bang

Starts With A Bang podcast #110 – Optical Interferometry

Interferometry gave us a black hole’s event horizon, but that was in the radio. What can we accomplish with a new optical interferometer?

Two Guy Fawkes masks in a pixelated, digital art style with one mask smiling and the other frowning, set against a dark background with faint green patterns.

The Future

Will AI supercharge hacking — if it hasn’t already?

Hackers are in an arms race with cyber defenders. Will AI tip the balance?

Collaged image of text and a black-and-white scene with a dinosaur and mountainous backdrop. The year "1950" is visible in the bottom left corner.

The Past

How the search for dinosaurs on Venus exposed a warning for Earth

Dinosaurs and other beasts were once thought to be the “undisputed masters” of Venus.

Three versions of a buttercup flower: left is yellow in visible light, middle is pinkish in ultraviolet, and right is colorless in infrared—a glimpse into the diverse sensory umwelt surrounding us.

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How “umwelt” can make you more creative and productive

If you’re out on a walk, you will see a different world than your dog, a bee, or an ant. Here are three reasons why that matters.

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