Humans The ancestral language of half the world reveals our shared culture The hunt for the prehistoric mother tongue that gave rise to dozens of the languages we speak today reminds us of the scientific case for international identity News
Technology A stack of Apple laptops could work as a powerful supercomputer Supercomputers are expensive to buy and run, but connecting up lots of consumer Apple computers that contain M1 chips may be able to do the same job for less News
Physics The blessing and the curse of the axion’s rise in US particle physics Since the Large Hadron Collider turned up nothing in its search for supersymmetry, physicists have turned their attention to the axion, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a self-described superfan of this hypothetical particle Comment
Life Orchidomania: A history of our obsession with orchids These images from a new illustrated book chart the long human love affair with orchids, the incredible family of flowering plants that continue to captivate us today Regulars
Humans The hunt for the lost ancestral language of Europe and southern Asia We've long known there was an ancient language that gave rise to English, Bengali and dozens of other tongues – now we’re on the brink of working out where Proto-Indo-European was spoken Features
Earth The Darkness Manifesto review: Why we need to turn out the lights Light pollution disrupts animals and has also been linked to human ailments. Bat scientist Johan Eklöf has some useful fixes in his new book Culture
Puzzle #195: Where did Bart need to drop his first load of passengers? Can you solve this week’s arithmetical puzzle, Shuttle space? Plus the answer to puzzle #194 Regulars
Bankman-Fried tops nominative determinism parade of tech entrepreneurs Feedback eyes the plummet of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency organisations with little surprise, while also exploring the fluid dynamics of breast milk and the advantages of a single life Regulars