For the curious

Vox · 2026-10-25

Can Machines Be War Criminals?

by Kylie Jones

If an algorithm targets a school, who stands trial for the war crime?

The Atlantic · 2026-10-25

The Two Kinds of American Patriotism

by Gal Beckerman

If a country is always a work in progress, how do you actually love it?

Just Security · 2026-10-25

The Moral Cost of Killing on Command

by Heather Aliano

When the military livestreams a firing squad, what happens to the soldiers ordered to be there?

The Conversation · 2026-10-25

40 Days to Arrive, 40 Days to Leave: How Armenian Culture Honors Life’s Most Important Moments

by Shushan Karapetian, Director of the Institute of Armenian Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Why might a new mother and a grieving family both need forty days away from ordinary life?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-24

Entanglement Builds Space-Time. Now “Magic” Gives It Gravity.

by Charlie Wood

If space is made of quantum particles, what makes it bend under the weight of a star?

Astral Codex Ten · 2026-10-24

Against Against Handover

by Scott Alexander

If a machine could run a country without corruption, would it matter that it isn't human?

The Conversation · 2026-10-24

100 Years Ago, Schrödinger’s Equation Shed Light on Quantum Physics – Scientists Use It Today to Fine-tune Chemical Reactions

by Sophya Garashchuk, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina

How do you design predictable materials out of atoms that behave like unpredictable waves?

Defector · 2026-10-24

Warhammer 40K is Cool

by Patrick Wyman

Why does a tabletop game about endless war have more creative freedom than a billion-dollar movie franchise?

Aeon · 2026-10-23

Traction!

by Jennifer R Vail

STAT News · 2026-10-23

Opinion: the Inherited Disease My Family Called ‘it’ Had a Name, Which Changed Everything

by Miranda Pappas

If researchers discover the name of your family's illness, whose job is it to tell you?

Psyche · 2026-10-23

Why Romantic Relationships Matter More to Men Than to Women

by Iris Wahring

What happens when the only person a man is allowed to need walks away?

The Paris Review Daily · 2026-10-23

Murano Parsnips: the Unexpected Literary History of the Dildo

by Izabella Scott

How does a glass toy from Venice become a crime punishable by death?

Noahpinion · 2026-10-23

“You Can See Everything” and the Nature of Liars

by Noah Smith

How do you film the truth about someone who lies as easily as they breathe?

The Diplomat · 2026-10-22

Democracy is Not Silence Between Elections

by Nabeel Kolothumthodi

War on the Rocks · 2026-10-22

Tehran is a Different Beast Now

by Cole Bucy

How do you end a war when the surviving leaders assume they're already dead?

The Atlantic · 2026-10-22

Are Men to Blame for the Birth-Rate Collapse?

by Marc Novicoff

If men are taking on more of the housework, why do birth rates keep falling?

Vox · 2026-10-22

Why We Should All Be Partying More

by Jonquilyn Hill

What happens to a culture when people stop gathering in crowded rooms to dance?

Noema · 2026-10-21

What We Can Save in a Time of Endings

by Kat Hill

When the sea comes for a coastline, who decides what gets a wall and what gets abandoned?

STAT News · 2026-10-21

Opinion: I Was a Theranos Whistleblower. In ‘You Can See Everything,’ Elizabeth Holmes is Still Lying

by Tyler Shultz

How do you film a documentary about someone who never stops performing?

The Paris Review Daily · 2026-10-20

The Uncanny Catharsis of the AI Emomercial

by Jean Garnett

Why is an algorithm the only one willing to admit how much getting older hurts?

The Independent · 2026-10-20

No Black-footed Ferrets Found in Meeteetse, 40 Years After a Rescue Saved the Species

by Mike Koshmrl

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-20

The Race for Hydrogen Fuel Has Taken These Scientists to the Arctic Seafloor. But Can They Unlock Its Secrets Before It's Too Late?

Could a microbe on the Arctic seafloor survive long enough to change how the world uses energy?

Aeon · 2026-10-20

How Intuitions Work

by Marc A Moffett

What gives an unexplained gut feeling the same authority as something you see with your own eyes?

Defector · 2026-10-20

How Jay-Z Changed Rap with ‘Reasonable Doubt’

by Israel Daramola

How did one album turn the street hustle into a luxury brand?

The Conversation · 2026-10-20

More Protein in Your Breakfast or Snacks Won’t Give You More Muscle Without More Work – a Biologist Separates the Science From the Marketing

by Linda M. Boland, Professor of Biology, University of Richmond

If muscles only grow when you lift something heavy, what is that protein bar actually doing?

The UnPopulist · 2026-10-19

How to Hold Authoritarians Accountable Without Fueling a Backlash

The Conversation · 2026-10-19

Americans Want Electric Cars – They Just Can’t Find Them

by John Paul Helveston, Associate Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, George Washington University

If sales only show what's on the lot, how do you know what drivers actually want?

Just Security · 2026-10-19

Foreign Interference and the Democratic Self-Defense Trap: a European Perspective Going Into the 2026 Midterms

by Michael John-Hopkins

Scroll.in · 2026-10-19

‘I Wrote a Children’s Book About an Insult I Faced. Later, I Had the Same Thought About My Daughter’

by Lakshmi Iyer

How do you unlearn a prejudice against your own skin when your family calls it care?

Defector · 2026-10-19

Good Art is Worth Waiting For

by Kelsey McKinney

How close can you get to a fraudster before you stop seeing them clearly?

The UnPopulist · 2026-10-18

Even Perfect Liberal Governance Could Not Have Stopped Reactionary Populism

by Jonathan Rauch

When voters start asking whose country it is, does a strong economy even matter?

The Conversation · 2026-10-18

Why People Keep Looking for Noah’s Ark in a Natural Rock Formation in Turkey: a Scholar of Early Christianity Explains

by Eric Vanden Eykel, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Ferrum College

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-18

A Diver Volunteered to Clean up Trash From a Wisconsin Lake. He Discovered a 1,000-Year-Old Dugout Canoe at the Bottom Instead

Noahpinion · 2026-10-18

A Nobel for New Keynesian Macro, at Last!

by Noah Smith

How do you steer an economy when the people inside it anticipate your every move?

Noema · 2026-10-18

We Are Already Post-Human

by Nathan Gardels

If people can no longer survive without their devices, are they already part machine?

The Atlantic · 2026-10-17

American Christians Face a Choice

by Peter Wehner

What happens to a faith when its believers decide they need a warrior instead of a servant?

The Conversation · 2026-10-17

I’m a Physicist Who Worked on the Nobel-winning Neutrino Search – Here’s How a Cubic Kilometer of Antarctic Ice Became a Telescope for Ghost Particles From Space

by Tyce DeYoung, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University

Noema · 2026-10-17

When the Present Eats the Future

by Nathan Gardels

How does a free society build the next century when its economy only rewards the present?

Scroll.in · 2026-10-17

How Photography Helped Physicist Bibha Chowdhuri See the Invisible in the 1930s

by Kamayani Sharma

The Conversation · 2026-10-17

Learning Without a Brain – How Bacteria Store Memories and Remember the Past Like Artificial Neural Networks

by Shiladitya Banerjee, Associate Professor of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology

How exactly does a single cell hold onto a memory without a brain?

Defector · 2026-10-17

What Messi Means

by Billy Haisley

How does watching a stranger play a game end up changing the course of your life?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-16

One Weather Forecast Changed the Course of WWII. Here's the Real Story Behind 'Pressure,' a Drama About the Meteorologist Who Convinced the Allies to Delay D-Day

How do you launch the largest invasion in history when the meteorologists can't agree on the weather?

Scroll.in · 2026-10-16

Why Weight Lost by Restricting Calories Doesn’t Often Stay Off

by Yasmine Probst, The Conversation

Works in Progress · 2026-10-16

Porcelain

by Works in Progress

How did the fragile clay of ancient teacups become the strongest surface in the kitchen?

The Diplomat · 2026-10-16

What I Learned From a Year of Interviewing a Thai Sex Worker

by Toh Oon Hoe

If selling sex is the only way to feed your family, is it still a choice?

Scroll.in · 2026-10-16

Why Relocating Wild Animals is Rife with Complications

by Adam Hart, The Conversation

When you move a herd of wild elephants, what happens to the people already living there?

Africa Is a Country · 2026-10-16

Forward, but for Whom?

by Afolabi Adekaiyaoja

When a continent holds the most votes in world football, what does it trade them for?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-15

Did Industrialization Gut Our Microbiomes? A New Study on Rural Foraging Communities in South America and Africa Hints the Answer is Yes

Vox · 2026-10-15

The Surprisingly Hopeful Quest to Fix Concrete

by Sara Herschander

What happens when the concrete beneath a city starts pulling carbon from the air?

STAT News · 2026-10-15

Opinion: We Think a Baby’s Gut Microbiome Could Be Key to Lifelong Brain Health

by Holly Baines and George Vradenburg

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-15

How Does Touch Lead to Pain or Pleasure?

by Janna Levin and Steven Strogatz

Why does the exact same touch feel comforting from a friend but threatening from a stranger?

The Bulwark · 2026-10-15

‘You Can See Everything’ Review

by Sonny Bunch

Can a film tell the truth when the director and the subject are both famous for lying?

War on the Rocks · 2026-10-13

How Taiwan Activates Beijing’s Chosen Fear

by Charles Edward Gehrke

Why would a nuclear superpower risk a war over a three-thousand-year-old story?

The Guardian (Long Read) · 2026-10-13

I Was Kidnapped and Held Hostage for 977 Days. Could I Forgive My Captors?

by Michael Scott Moore

When does forgiving the men holding you hostage become the only way to free yourself?

Psyche · 2026-10-13

What is Hidden in the Photographs We Keep of Each Other?

by Sawa Kurotani

How much of a family's history lives just outside the frame of a photograph?

The Conversation · 2026-10-13

Everyone Wants to Think They’re Open-minded – Here’s Why Most People Aren’t

by Daryl Van Tongeren, Professor of Psychology, Hope College

Why does admitting you might be wrong feel like losing your grip on the world?

Aeon · 2026-10-12

Is Everything Conscious?

by Sam Kimpton-Nye

If a collection of atoms cannot create a mind, does that mean the atoms themselves are conscious?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-12

Researchers May Have Directly Glimpsed an Exoplanet’s Magnetic Field for the First Time, Building Hope of Peering Deeper Into Faraway Worlds

The Diplomat · 2026-10-12

AI and the Risk to Democracy

by Mercy A. Kuo

Can a machine ever be safe if the government controlling it answers to no one?

The Conversation · 2026-10-12

Physics Nobel Highlights Antarctica’s Role in Exploring the Cosmos

by Jean de Pomereu, Research Affiliate, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge

STAT News · 2026-10-11

Opinion: 50 Years Ago, My Colleagues and I Pursued Basic Research Science That Became Revolutionary

by Robert C. Gallo

Scroll.in · 2026-10-11

Infections Are Causing Cancer, Finds New Research

by John (Eddie) La Marca, The Conversation

Scroll.in · 2026-10-11

The Ghanian Scholar Who Changed How the World Hears African Music

by Geoff Mapaya, The Conversation

What happens when an African drumbeat is studied with the tools built for a European symphony?

The Conversation · 2026-10-11

Nina Simone, Langston Hughes and Their Forgotten Creative Collaboration

by Jason Miller, Assistant Lecturer, North Carolina State University

How much of Nina Simone's stage persona was actually shaped by a poet?

Works in Progress · 2026-10-11

Epidurals Are Miraculous

by Phoebe Arslanagić-Little

If medicine can make childbirth painless, why do so many women still give birth in agony?

McSweeney's Internet Tendency · 2026-10-10

An Open Letter to Cornell University From the Mother of a Prospective Male Student

by Anaïs Godard

The Conversation · 2026-10-10

Sexual Assault Survivors’ Stories May Shift Over Time – a Psychologist Explains Why It Doesn’t Mean They’re Lying

by Michele Patterson Ford, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Dickinson College

STAT News · 2026-10-10

A Mother-daughter Quest to Find Fellow Members of an Ultra-rare Genetic Community

by Deepa Fernandes

How do you find your people when only 337 of them exist in the world?

Psyche · 2026-10-10

Say Yes to Regret

by Sandra Lamb

How does a regret you can never fix become a simple note in a daily planner?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-10

Archaeologists Are Reconstructing the 'Invisible' Technologies of the Stone Age, From Rope to Thread and Twine

What goes missing from the ancient world when everything but stone and bone rots away?

The Atlantic · 2026-10-08

The End of Reading is Here

by Rose Horowitch

What happens to a culture when the books survive but the readers disappear?

The Diplomat · 2026-10-08

The Promises the Afghanistan War Left Behind

by Zahra Rahimi

Just Security · 2026-10-08

The 9/11 Military Commission and Lessons of Recent History

by Benjamin R. Farley

Defector · 2026-10-08

Art Can Be What You Smell

by Rena Behar

Once you let a smell loose in a gallery, can you ever really control what it does?

Psyche · 2026-10-07

Want to Be a Lifelong Learner? Don’t Go It Alone

by Celine Nguyen

Astral Codex Ten · 2026-10-07

An Open Letter to Steven Pinker on AI

by Scott Alexander

Why would a lifelong defender of human progress laugh off the risks of artificial intelligence?

Compact · 2026-10-07

There is No ‘Nordic Model’

by Felice Basbøll

How does a society work when nobody has to depend on anyone else?

Defector · 2026-10-07

Phoebe Bridgers Showed Us How to See in the Dark

by Kelsey McKinney

When a concert goes completely unrecorded, what happens to the people in the room?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-07

Theory of Fluids Enters the 21st Century

by Charlie Wood

How does a chaotic swarm of atoms create the perfectly smooth flow of a river?

The Guardian (Long Read) · 2026-10-07

‘It Could Knock a Whole Street Down’: the Art of Defusing a Second World War Bomb

by Samira Shackle

How do you defuse an eighty-year-old bomb when you can't tell if it's ticking?

The Conversation · 2026-10-06

Why Making Americans Bet with Cash Could Protect People From Gambling Problems

by Jay L. Zagorsky, Associate Professor of Business, Boston University

Scroll.in · 2026-10-06

How Dreaded Dacoit Phoolan Devi Became an Irresistible Legend

by Nandini Ramnath

How does a terrified teenager become a legendary outlaw before anyone has even seen her face?

Africa Is a Country · 2026-10-06

What Replaced the Slave Trade?

by Joshua W.J. Brown

When people are no longer bought and sold, what is the price of controlling where they move?

The Conversation · 2026-10-06

Physicists Who Uncovered the First Particle Accelerator Were Honored with a Nobel Prize 75 Years Ago – Their Work Shaped Physics, Medicine and Even Art Research

by Andrea Richard, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University

How did a machine built to smash atoms end up in hospitals and the Louvre?

Slow Boring · 2026-10-06

Who Lost Afghanistan?

by Matthew Yglesias

Did America lose the war in Afghanistan the moment it decided to invade Iraq?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-05

Is AI the End of Math as We Know It?

by Jordana Cepelewicz

When a machine skips straight to the answer, who is left to understand the math?

Works in Progress · 2026-10-05

Mosquitoes Are a Choice

by Maya Rosen

Psyche · 2026-10-05

Why Long-brewing Physical and Mental Breakdowns Feel so Sudden

by Sasi S Senga

When a breakdown feels sudden, how long had the body been quietly holding itself together?

Defector · 2026-10-05

The Case Against Exceptionalism

by Alex Sujong Laughlin

How much of a life can a family trade away for an Ivy League acceptance letter?

The Conversation · 2026-10-05

Lessons for the 21st Century From a 200-year-old Book by ‘Frankenstein’ Author Mary Shelley

by Eileen Hunt, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame

How did a private diary of grief become a story about the end of the world?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-04

Scientists Say the Human Brain Might Be Made of Two Distinct Nervous Systems That Got Squished Together

Psyche · 2026-10-04

When You Feel Moral Disgust, What’s the Emotion Telling You?

by Brandon Yip

The Atlantic · 2026-10-04

Sons and Mothers

by George Packer

How do you find your own words when your mother is reading over your shoulder?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-04

What Was the Biggest Dinosaur? Fragmentary Fossils Make It Hard to Tell

Why are the biggest dinosaurs the hardest ones to find in one piece?

The Diplomat · 2026-10-04

‘Golden Kamuy’ and Modern Russo-Japanese Relations

by Marin Ekstrom and Wilder Alejandro Sánchez

Can a comic book about hidden gold change how Japan remembers the people it nearly erased?

McSweeney's Internet Tendency · 2026-10-04

The Hardest Thing to Say: on Neurodivergence and Work

by Taylor Harris

How do you stop apologizing for a brain that refuses to work a full-time job?

Noema · 2026-10-03

Return of the Repressed in Germany

by Nathan Gardels

When a country tries to bury its past, where does the need for a homeland actually go?

Scroll.in · 2026-10-03

The Start of a Run Can Feel Like a Fight Against Your Body – and That is Normal

by Richard Taylor, The Conversation

Africa Is a Country · 2026-10-03

People Have to Be Treated as People

by Aidan Huang

What actually makes a house feel safe in a city you barely know?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-02

Where Does the Quantum World End and Ours Begin?

by Steven Strogatz and Janna Levin

Why doesn't a table act like the quantum waves it's made of?