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History & Society
Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.
How many stupid acts does it take to make a person stupid?
The "Creativity Pioneers" proving that imagination
is a practical tool for social transformation.
Moleskine Foundation
Carl Sagan's baloney detection kit taught us how to separate good science from the work of charlatans. In 2026, that matters more than ever.
AI is not a rupture in history, but a continuation of intelligence emerging where information becomes systematically arranged.
Julius Caesar conquered Gaul but his emotional intelligence was pitiful — and there’s plenty we can learn from his leadership deficiencies.
6mins
Happiness collapses the moment hardship arrives. Joy doesn’t. Historian Kate Bowler explains why joy can coexist with pain — and why that makes it a stronger, more fulfilling emotion.
No claim has even made it halfway up the Confidence of Life Detection (CoLD) scale, but 21st century science is just beginning to unfold.
In this excerpt from Think Like a Mathematician, Junaid Mubeen explains how tiny actions can shape complex systems, revealing the limits of prediction and control in our lives.
22mins
"Rationalism is the idea that, in order to truly know something, you have to be able to describe it explicitly."
Even at its faintest, Venus always outshines every other star and planet that's visible from Earth, and then some!
Many collaborations have used JWST to take deep-field images: some wider and some deeper than others. Here's how it can surpass them all.
A century ago, quantum physics overthrew our view of a deterministic Universe. A profound 21st century theorem closes the door even further.
8mins
"The thing that the nihilist recognizes is that the values he or she holds are not grounded in anything other than their own preferences."
The Universe formed stars, galaxies, and even galaxy clusters extremely early on in our cosmos. This new marvel is one more JWST surprise.
The revival of Pasto Varnish shows how living heritage can survive if knowledge is passed on in time.
One of the toughest vocational exams in the world requires candidates to memorize 25,000 streets in an area five times the size of Manhattan.
For elite climbers, divers, and explorers, mastery can fuel an escalation loop in which identity and danger rise together.
The Stoic philosopher argued that most of life is outside our control — but the little we do control defines who we are.
Our great hope is that today's indirect, astrophysical evidence will someday lead to successful direct detection. What if that's impossible?
Just like animals, galaxies often have bizarre, unusual, or even unique properties. But finding many, all at once, really does raise alarms.