Something like Atlas, Spot and Handle will likely inhabit the world we're now building — and their weirdness will be just commonplace, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.
In this visualization, based on data collected by scientists, we see Earth changing — its plants, surface winds, and sea currents responding to the energy coming from the sun, says Marcelo Gleiser.
From real-life, seaweed-carrying dolphins to fictional singing seahorses, animals in these new books can excite the mind, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.
Science will one day explain visual perception and memory loss. But will it also explain romantic love and morality? Tania Lombrozo considers people's beliefs about what science can and can't explain.
As we find our way in a world shaped by Big Data, it's not the reams of information we gather but the networks they illuminate that's the newest addition to science's index of things, says Adam Frank.
Together, aesthetic awareness and scientific analysis puts us in direct, sensory relationship with the forest and gives us the ability to understand what we see, says author David George Haskell.
The great physicist Enrico Fermi asked this question in the 1950s. There are more than 50 possible "solutions" to Fermi's Paradox: Here, astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser explores a few.
Tiny filler words in human rapid-fire conversation hold the key to understanding how language is unique, according to a new book. But anthropologist Barbara J. King raises some questions.
Over time, the expansion of the cosmos and the passage of light has unlocked 63 orders of magnitude to us, each one a new opportunity for novelty and complexity, says guest blogger Caleb Scharf.
The Climate Science Special Report, released by the White House last week, is a valuable read — it's a primer on how science works when it overlaps with the need to make informed bets on our future.
Students in this "Living Deliberately"' class embrace asceticism and challenge stereotypes of college kids who can't put down their cellphones, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.
We owe our existence to little photosynthetic bacteria — but there is much more to this story, as life can only mutate and adapt when the planet offers the right conditions, says Marcelo Gleiser.
Tania Lombrozo looks at a new paper arguing that research on the public's understanding of science often conflates knowledge and understanding — and that this conflation has costs.
Author Kim Stanley Robinson deserves a place as a true visionary: He has done more than just write good science-fiction — he's mapped out new territory in what it means to be human, says Adam Frank.
Activist Tobias Leenaert counsels vegans and vegetarians to focus on vegan meals rather than vegan identities — and to talk encouragingly with meat reducers, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.
Last week, EPA scientists were pulled from speaking at a meeting where they would address climate change. New EPA leaders were quickly accused of censoring their own scientists, says Adam Frank.
We may all tear up watching this elderly chimpanzee reunite with a friend at the end of her life — a testament to the complexity of animal thinking and feeling, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.
Despite my skepticism at the outset, for a light and amusing TV sitcom "The Good Place" does a pretty good job with philosophy — and a pretty good job with human psychology, too, says Tania Lombrozo.
Is it necessary coddling or just good science to give college students breaks to check their phones in class? Anthropologist Barbara J. King takes a look.
Astronomy is forever changed by the viewing of the collision of neutron stars; we can now watch these processes in many different ways as they run their course, says astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser.
Mars is not compelling as a long-term human destination, says guest blogger Amanda Hendrix. But there's a place in our solar system where conditions are right: Saturn's Moon Titan.
Ever since the first movie achieved cult status, fans have hotly debated if Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, is a replicant. Blade Runner 2047 leaves room for argument, says fan Adam Frank.
