24 May 2023
More and more of us are turning to audiobooks for our reading, but a new study suggests that when we listen to a text rather than read it, we may engage in less deliberative thinking, says David Robson
17 November 2021
Humans aren’t the only animals to get wasted once in a while. Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins by Oné R. Pagán shows how all manner of creatures do something similar, with amusing effects
29 January 2020
This week, watch nail-biting drama as researchers escape an underwater lab, discover physical intelligence – humans' most essential ability – and visit Vincent van Gogh
20 November 2019
This week, visit an exhibition of brave biological art, unpack strange stories of the elements and play wisely to save a city of the future
30 October 2019
The Feeling of Life Itself by Christof Koch charts a radical theory about consciousness that shows the survival advantages for humans, and why computers can never be conscious
4 September 2019
We need a better handle on our ignorance if we want to improve our lives, says Ola Rosling, a proponent of factfulness - holding only opinions supported by strong facts
4 September 2019
If you're struggling to understand the mysteries of quantum physics and relativity, you need all the help you can get – even borrowing Buddhist mysticism, shows a new book
28 August 2019
Fuelled by government and corporate dollars, being happy has become near mandatory. A controversial new book, Manufacturing Happy Citizens, explains the rise of positive psychology
12 June 2019
We're not wrong to think we have free will, but The Science of Fate by Hannah Critchlow reveals the moral complexities underpinning our sense of unlimited choice
8 May 2019
In her monthly sci-fi column, Helen Marshall plumbs the mind's most gripping fictional futures in Jeanette Winterson's Frankissstein and Ted Chiang's Exhalation
