Gut Reactions
To research Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism, MS, anxiety, and depression, you have to start in the digestive tract, not in the brain.
Science & Nature
We Owe Our Lives to Some Bugs that Ate the Sun
For ten points, name the central event in the history of life.
Ten Rules for the New Administration…from the Emus
In the first official inter-species war on record...the emus won. Our new president might want to heed their advice.
The Mouse That…Squeaked
I call out the list of what not to feed a mouse. No rhubarb. No raisins or onions, no fizzy bubbles, no caffeine. Definitely no booze. Which is a shame, because I bet she would be even cuter tipsy.
Language Can Stop Us from Loving the World
“It is impossible to prefigure the salvation of the world in the same language by which the world has been dismembered and defaced.”
The Taunting Horror of Drones
TikTok and Instagram channels of drone killings on the battlefield in Ukraine started with them dropping grenades or mortar rounds into trenches and other enemy positions, but the latest ones offer fanboys their own aesthetic. They all look the same: The earth is a gray-green monotony. The camera is floating above, looking down with an eye for movement. The video has been edited, so as not to be boring.
What Happens When an AI Jesus Steps in for the Clergy
A young pastor said, “I was positively surprised how well it worked.” All he missed, he added, was emotion and spirituality.
Snow Daze
Remember folding white paper again and again, then snipping it with blunt scissors to make a snowflake? The magic never ends.
Richard Powers Makes Your Brain His Playground
Spoilers can be justified: without them you will need to go back and read this whole gorgeous book all over again.
Architecture Can Heal Us
Our everyday environment “used to be quaint and quirky,” Vishaan Chakrabarti writes. “Now it is mundane and monolithic.”