Stoicism: How to turn your sadness into strength Chloé Valdary shares the ancient Stoic principle that can defeat modern despair. ▸ 7 min — with Chloé Valdary
Hard Science 3 new studies indicate a conflict at the heart of cosmology The Universe isn’t as “clumpy” as we think it should be.
Starts With A Bang The sober truth about finding the Universe’s first stars The Universe certainly formed stars, at one point, for the very first time. But we haven’t found them yet. Here’s what everyone should know.
The Past Ancient migration: Bering Strait land bridge from Asia to North America was not a one-way road Ancient humans crossed the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia into North America. But some of them went back.
Sponsored Want to boost your happiness? Buy experiences, not material possessions Some experiences continue to pay dividends time and time again.
High Culture Did Paul Cézanne hide an early self-portrait underneath a 160-year-old still life? To answer that question, we may have to figure out when the famed painter started to go bald.
Strange Maps Dutch government releases a genuine treasure map from WWII, sparking a hunt for the loot X marks the spot. The Dutch town of Ommeren has been swamped by detectorists armed with shovels looking for $20-million treasure.
Thinking Creative wisdom from Rick Rubin: Embrace your inner gatekeeper Unlock the full potential of your creativity with holistic detachment. This is the way of the editor.
Starts With A Bang The path forward for astronomers and native Hawaiians A history of injustice and the greatest natural location for ground-based telescopes have long been at odds. Here’s how the healing begins.
Thinking “Give a f***, actually”: The surprising benefits of being grateful for things you dislike Radical Emotional Acceptance calls on you to celebrate all of life’s emotions — even the negative ones.
Thinking Visual thinking: How to understand the inner lives of animals Humans are good visual thinkers, too, but we tend to privilege verbal thinking.
Strange Maps The world’s longest straight line connects Portugal to China It’s nearly 20,000 miles long.
The Past How the death of alchemy gave birth to modern science Far from practicing witchcraft, the experimentation of medieval alchemists helped bring about the Scientific Revolution.
The Well This is what the fourth dimension looks like Left–Right, Back–Forth, Up–Down. What’s the fourth dimension? ▸ 3 min — with Brian Greene
Starts With A Bang JWST’s hunt for most distant galaxies gets double boost Along with gravitational lensing and ALMA’s incredible long-wavelength spectroscopy, JWST is reshaping our view of the early Universe.
The Future Startup’s bladeless flying car is designed to reach Mach 0.8 One of Jetoptera’s VTOLs is expected to reach speeds of around 614 mph, about as fast as a commercial jet airliner.
Health New blood types are often discovered following medical disasters New blood types are regularly discovered by an unusual absence or an unusual presence — both of which can result in tragedy.
Life Scientists use CRISPR to insert an alligator gene into a catfish Disease kills off 40% of farmed catfish. This gene protects them.
Health What happens when regular porn watchers abstain for a week? Researchers watched for signs of withdrawal — but didn’t find any.
Neuropsych Daily caffeine intake temporarily alters your brain structure Compared to people who took a placebo, the brains of those who took caffeine pills had a temporarily smaller gray matter volume.
Thinking Why you should laugh at yourself, according to Seneca and Nietzsche “It is more human to laugh at life than to lament it.”
The Present How circular economics can make us happier and less stressed Entrenched business wisdom says that community-led economic systems are pure fantasy. Douglas Rushkoff disagrees.
The mind-bending physics of time How the Big Bang gave us time, explained by theoretical physicist. ▸ 8 min — with Sean Carroll
The Learning Curve The art of asking the right questions The right questions are those sparked from the joy of discovery.
Starts With A Bang Ask Ethan: Do my atoms really “touch” each other? When you bring two fingers together, you can feel them “touch” each other. But are your atoms really touching, and if so, how?
13.8 Why the origin of life and the Universe itself might be forever unknowable There might be a hard limit to our knowledge of the Universe.
Sponsored 4 misleading personal finance tips Personal finance advice is often over-simplified and fails to consider economic research or people’s unique circumstances.
Strange Maps Europe’s stunning digital divide, in one map Some Europeans really don’t want to use the internet.
Thinking Bonhoeffer’s “theory of stupidity”: We have more to fear from stupid people than evil ones Evil is easy to identify and fight against; not so with stupidity.
Hard Science Without this genius optical trick, those gigantic telescopes aren’t any better than the one in your backyard Size matters, but it’s not the only thing.