Whilst many have come to accept the principle that a group wronged in the past deserves compensation in the present, a majority still conclude that difficulties in implementing such policies practically justify their absence. In this article, Rashawn Ray …
From its very inception quantum mechanics troubled physicists. It seemed to challenge our conception of reality and lead to apparent contradictions. One of the founders of quantum mechanics, Werner Heisenberg, questioned whether the theory offered a …
Einstein’s General Relativity is a theory of grand scales, requiring correspondingly grand scale experiments to test it. Black holes, whose existence is predicted by General Relativity, are a great laboratory for such experiments. So far, these new …
The philosopher, George Berkeley, famously asserted that we cannot see distance. Our eyes can only see in 2-dimensions. However, we manage to navigate in a 3-dimensional world pretty well. 3-dimensional seeing then, is a learnt skill. This conclusion has …
Is the universe fundamentally predictable or unpredictable? Does the degree to which the future remains unknown reflect our own cognitive limitations, or the fundamentally open structure of reality? Earlier this week a remarkable panel comprising of Lee …
The idea that society is ordered from the top-down originated from Thomas Hobbes’ seminal 1651 book, Leviathan. And this idea still resonates strongly today: we agree to a social contract in which we give up some of our freedoms to the state, in the hope …
The current cosmological model only works by postulating the existence of dark matter – a substance that has never been detected, but that is supposed to constitute approximately 25% of all the universe. But a simple test suggests that dark matter does not …
We tend to think that leadership is all about the leader, and the qualities that separate them from their followers. But more recently there is a recognition that leadership is better understood when thinking about what connects leaders with their …
We tend to think of the laws of nature as fixed. They came into existence along with the universe, and have been the same ever since. But once you start asking why the laws of the universe are what they are, their invariance also comes into question. Lee …
We will all, presumably, die one day. That much is certain. But how we die, is at least somewhat, up to us. And how we understand death will dramatically change how we face it. We can turn to five of history’s most influential philosophers for wisdom, and …
Abortions have always taken place, even when they have been illegal. But banning abortion in the age of online surveillance is something entirely new. Even though online data is anonymized, by combining a number of different data points, it’s possible for …
Language is the main tool we have to communicate to others our view of reality. We choose our words carefully to convey our perspective. But that perspective is itself already shaped by the language we use. Language therefore is far from an objective …
You’ve heard of stem cell research and its promise of a medical revolution given the regenerative abilities of stem cells. But as it turns out, identifying what a stem cell is experimentally is not at all straightforward. Stem cells have two main abilities …
The US right often appeals to liberty – freedom from the state – as a justification for its policies. But it also seems to oppose liberty in many key political issues, particularly when it comes to the private domain of sexual relations. This seeming …
We have entered a period of history when our growing ability to transform nature has begun limiting our freedom, rather than expanding it. Global warming is a point in case. But even more dangerous for our freedom are the developments in biogenetics and …
Prices are rising. Money is worth less than it did a month ago, and a lot less than it did a year ago. Central banks, who have the ability to reverse inflation by raising interest rates, have been slow to react. They worry that higher interest rates can …
E.M. Forster’s 1909 fable, ‘The Machine Stops’ - which depicts a world state in which the inhabitants live inside vast underground cities, isolated from one another except for an electronic mass communications network - is a powerful story of technological …
The male gaze is objectifying, reductive, and dominates our visual culture. So, the antidote must be balancing it out with a new emphasis on the female gaze, right? Wrong. The way the female gaze has been conceptualized still propagates the usual …
Isn’t it strange that we all have that little voice in our heads that continually deciphers good from evil? We often think our conscience is something close to a perfect moral compass. We only go morally astray when we don’t listen to it. But, Nietzsche …
Over the age of 45, nearly half of us are now on 3 or more drugs every day of the year where as in the 1980 a very few of us were on any drugs at all. However, far from transforming our prospects for the better, these new treatments are compromising our …
