Matter | Cosmology
Chapter one
Starting from Scratch
Ideas | Epistemology
Why We Can’t Rule Out Bigfoot
How the null hypothesis keeps the hairy hominid alive.
Culture | Fiction
The First Day
One man’s walk to his own cremation.
Ideas | Physics
The Bridge From Nowhere
How is it possible to get something from nothing?
Chapter two
No Experience
Biology | Psychology
Postcards From the Edge of Consciousness
Sensory deprivation goes from CIA torture manuals to a yoga studio near you.
Ideas | Philosophy
An Atheist’s Guide to Spirituality
“I did not have to believe anything irrational about the universe.”
Biology | Evolution
Why Your Cat Doesn’t Have a Sweet Tooth
Moles don’t see, whales can’t smell, and snakes can’t hear a thing.
Culture | Psychology
Why We Procrastinate
We think of our future selves as strangers.
Biology | Medicine
Take Two Sugar Pills and Call Me in the Morning
Genetic tests can predict when placebos may be the best medicine.
Chapter three
Disappearing
Biology | Neurology
This Is Your Brain on Silence
Contrary to popular belief, peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head.
Biology | Ecology
The Woods That Time Forgot
In the Mist, a film about a Canary Island forest, opens the archives of Earth’s history.
Biology | Extinction
Zombie Sponge Reefs Are Lurking at the Bottom of the Sea
The resurrection of glass sponge reefs proves extinction doesn’t have to be eternal.
Culture | Psychology
How To Waste Time Properly
The right distractions boost creativity.
Biology | Neurology
This Is Where Your Childhood Memories Went
Your brain needs to forget in order to grow.
Chapter four
Undefined
Biology | Zoology
Loyalty Nearly Killed My Beehive
My queen was a dud, and her replacement had been murdered.
Matter | Physics
Ingenious: Alan Lightman
The physicist on writing, the writer on physics.
Ideas | Philosophy
My Own Personal Nothingness
From a childhood hallucination to the halls of theoretical physics.
Ideas | Philosophy
Angst and the Empty Set
We can experience nothingness, but does it actually exist?
Numbers | Simulation
Traffic Ghost Hunting
When the biggest problem with traffic is nothing at all.
Ideas | Fiction
A Complicated Question
A child asks, and war answers.
Related Facts So Romantic
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” —Jules Verne
See All Blog Posts-
Culture Edgar Allan Poe, Part-Time Cosmologist & Big-Bang Philosoper
During the waning months of 1847, Edgar Allan Poe sat at his desk with a tortoiseshell cat draped around his shoulders and dreamed the universe into being.Poe believed the book he wrote…
Read More -
Biology When Eating Dairy Was a Life-or-Death Question
Perforated pottery shards sat alongside cattle bones at the Polish dig site. There archaeologists collected fragments from bowls, cooking pots, and flasks and brought them back to the United…
Read More -
Matter 5 Things That Sound, Move, or Smell Like a Nuclear Explosion
After most of the world’s nations signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, in 1996, they set up a new commission to watch out for clandestine explosions. Since then the commission…
Read More -
Biology The Few Tough Species That Survive the Rigors of Nothingness
In the 1800s, scientists imagined that life was brought to Earth by a rock that had been knocked off of a distant, life-filled planet. Now, over 100 years later, we are able to test this…
Read More