Typos, Tricks and Misprints
“Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology.”
Philosophy with Children
“Curious about aspects of the world that most adults take for granted, children demonstrate a seemingly instinctive capacity to ponder the most basic elements of life and society.”
Accumulation and Its Discontents
“Whether collecting, storing or hoarding, we’ve always had our issues with stuff – not least deciding what’s worth having.”
On Matthew’s Mind
An operation to remove a brain cyst changed Matthew’s identity.
Kid Culture
“Americans have always had issues raising their children as citizens instead of tiny, mighty monarchs.”
We Are Nature
“Even the Anthropocene is nature at work transforming itself.”
The Hunger Mood
Is losing weight a matter of psychology, not physiology?
Traumatized by the cure
“You gave us more life, but you didn’t attend to the issues that make life worth living.” Are survivors of life-threatening illness suffering from a form of PTSD?
The pointing ape
A chimpanzee called Clint instigated a significant line of research into how chimpanzees use gestures to manipulate people.
Deep Brain Stimulation
In 2017, the US medical device company Medtronic announced that it had implanted deep brain stimulation (DBS) equipment in 150,000 patients worldwide to reduce debilitating tremors. This is a powerful therapy, but have the risks proved to outweigh the benefits?