Master divergent and convergent thinking A productivity expert explains how you can be creative and a powerhouse of productivity. ▸ 5 min — with Tiago Forte
Health New study discovers how to reverse hearing loss Baby mice can regenerate damaged hair cells — and now that we know how they do it, maybe we can, too.
High Culture 5 classic literary utopias — or were they hell on Earth? Would you want to live in any of these places?
Hard Science The Fermi paradox was created by geniuses during a strange debate over lunch The Fermi paradox (along with the subsequent Drake equation) is so difficult that even brilliant thinkers can make little dent in it.
The Well Change your mind with these gateway drugs to intellectual humility Intellectual humility demands that we examine our motivations for holding certain beliefs.
Smart Skills How video gaming could boost your career Are you a video gaming master? Put it on your résumé.
The Learning Curve How to use a thesaurus to actually improve your writing A thesaurus isn’t to find big and fancy words, but a resource to help you find your rhythm.
Our primordial drive for sex and love Your brain on sex, love, and rejection with biological anthropologist Helen Fisher. ▸ 8 min — with Helen Fisher
Starts With A Bang Ask Ethan: Could reinterpreting our data eliminate dark energy? Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there some way to avoid “having to live with it?”
Sponsored 4 steps for overcoming guilt and shame from poor money decisions Money shame is more common than you might think.
Thinking 7 Greek philosophers and their brilliantly flawed explanations of nature Though ultimately incorrect, the ancient Greek philosophers blazed a conceptual trail for humankind to understand the nature of reality.
Health Oral bacteria trigger rheumatoid arthritis flare-ups Gum disease begins in the mouth but spreads to the joints. Rheumatoid arthritis is just one of several diseases linked to poor oral health.
Starts With A Bang Why does our Universe have 8 types of gluon? Protons and neutrons are held together by the strong force: with 3 colors and 3 anticolors. So why are there only 8 gluons, and not 9?
Strange Maps How octopus DNA suggests that Antarctica will melt again Two populations that are geographically separated today once mated a very long time ago.
Why you shouldn’t hire the smartest job candidate Economist Tyler Cowen explains why intelligence is overrated. Here’s what to look for instead. ▸ 7 min — with Tyler Cowen
Hard Science Rubble pile asteroids are really hard to break Some of them have survived the wilds of space for billions of years.
Starts With A Bang There is no evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose, famed for his work on black holes, claims we’ve seen evidence from a prior Universe. Only, we haven’t.
The Learning Curve Underdog stories can inspire us to greatness (or to break the rules) Everyone loves a good underdog story, but the lessons we derive from them depend on how they’re told.
Neuropsych Neurolaw: A brain scan test for trademark infringement If a court needs to know if two trademarks look too similar to each other, perhaps the jury should be given a brain scan.
Pessimists Archive Today, people fear Twitter. In the 1850s, they feared telegrams Telegrams were the “Twitter of the 1850s and 1860s” — and they elicited the exact same overblown fears as Twitter does today.
The Present ChatGPT answers physics questions like a confused C student ChatGPT doesn’t understand physics, but it memorizes very well and puts in extra effort.
Starts With A Bang Single JWST image encodes science’s three greatest mysteries An incredible composite image of Pandora’s Cluster, Abell 2744, simultaneously showcases both our impressive knowledge and vast ignorance.
Hard Science How the “Face on Mars” and other false positives impact the search for alien life We may have discovered alien life already but rejected the evidence too quickly because it seemed false at first glance.
High Culture The biggest buildings mankind never built From the Palace of the Soviets to The Illinois, these unmade buildings would have taken the art of architecture to whole new heights.
Thinking Ex-Christian America: How social media created more “nonverts” and atheists If you lost your religion, it might be because the internet and social media are having a secularizing effect on American society.
Health Stanford study concludes that average penis size has increased 24% in 30 years Researchers found that the average penis increased in size from 4.8 inches in 1992 to 6 inches in 2021. But in some regions, they shrank.
Starts With A Bang Watch: The scale of the entire Universe versus JWST’s views The glorious sights that JWST keeps revealing are less than a millionth of the whole Universe. Just imagine what else is out there.
Health DMT therapy appears effective for depression in phase 2 clinical trial The initial study lays the groundwork for another larger, longer phase 2 trial.