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Chapter one
In Theory
Math Shall Set You Free—From Envy
How to do divorce, divestment, and death properly.
Impossible Cookware and Other Triumphs of the Penrose Tile
Infinite patterns that never repeat have moved from fantasy to reality.
Chapter two
Akimbo
Stress Gives You Daughters, Sons Make You Liberal
We affect our children’s gender, and it affects us back.
Want to Get Out Alive? Follow the Ants
Ants show that emergency exits can work better when they’re obstructed.
Two-Stroke Toilets
The trouble with time travel.
Chapter three
In Your Head
James Doty’s Helper’s High
He gave away his last $30 million and felt free—a case study in altruism.
What Do Animals See in a Mirror?
A controversial test for self-awareness is dividing the animal kingdom.
How to Learn to Love Your Doppelganger
Hallucinating yourself can be both a symptom and a tool.
Chapter four
Bodies
Half Male, Half Female, Total Animal
Mixed-sex animals teach us about our own multifarious nature.
An Expert’s Guide to Celebrity Faces
The way we process faces means that symmetry is only part of the story.
“We Are Visual Animals, Driven By Images”
The head of the Max Planck Society discusses the science of creative visualization.
Picasso and Einstein Got the Picture
Breakthroughs in science and art begin with an image.
Chapter five
Blast Off
When the Earth Had Two Moons
A new model—“The Big Splat”—explains the strange asymmetry of the moon.
Ingenious: Gregory Laughlin
An astrophysicist looks into the future and the distance.
Third Data Server From the Sun
The Earth is becoming a computer visible across galactic distance.
The Disappearing Physicist and His Elusive Particle
He ushered symmetry into theoretical physics, then vanished without a trace.
Related Facts So Romantic
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” —Jules Verne
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