Matter | Physics
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Chapter one
Starting from Scratch
Ideas | Philosophy
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 | Health
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 | Neuroscience
This Is Your Brain on Silence
Contrary to popular belief, peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head.
Biology | Environment
The Woods That Time Forgot
In the Mist, a film about a Canary Island forest, opens the archives of Earth’s history.
Biology | Environment
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 | Neuroscience
This Is Where Your Childhood Memories Went
Your brain needs to forget in order to grow.
Chapter four
Undefined
Biology | Animals
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 | Math
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-
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…
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Matter
Why “Hawking Radiation” Was Almost “Feynman Radiation”
Nautilus’ Ingenious this month, Alan Lightman, is a successful writer and physicist, and one of the very rare people to receive an appointment in both science and humanities at MIT*.…
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Biology
If Half of All Species Go Extinct, Will One of Them Be Us?
How many animal species do you think go extinct every year? Last week I conducted a highly unscientific polling of around 20 of my Facebook and Google Chat contacts, asking that same question.…
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Culture
Iran’s Great, Dying Salt Lake
The last time my cousin Houman traveled to Lake Urmia was 10 years ago. He and four of his friends piled into his car and drove for roughly 12 hours, snaking west from the capital of Tehran.…
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