Pete Wells Has His Knives Out
The life and work of the New York Times restaurant critic.
The Coldest Case
The investigation into the strange case of Eugene Mallove, a fervent believer in cold fusion, something he hoped would revolutionise nuclear energy.
Inside the Very Big, Very Controversial Business of Dog Cloning
A look at the controversial, lucrative world of dog cloning, a practice that first leapt into the public consciousness via celebrity customers such as Barbra Streisand.
Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and the Feud Over Killer Robots
A look at the debates raging amongst Silicon Valley leaders about the potential dangers of AI.
The extraordinary life and death of the world’s oldest known spider
An obituary for a 43-year-old spider whose study was a career-spanning work for the zoologist that first found her. The spider was given a fitting epitaph in the scientific paper written after her death – “we can be inspired by an ancient mygalomorph spider and the rich biodiversity she embodied.”
Why Earth’s History Appears So Miraculous
An ambitious piece looking at observer selection effect – where a data set’s composition or properties are correlated with the very existence of its observer. The first example the piece calls on is an analysis of planes returning from WWII bombing raids with the goal of identifying which areas of the fuselage to reinforce, but it rapidly expands in scope to extinction events for our world, and our universe.
The Stick Is an Unsung Hero of Human Evolution
An archaeologist takes a look at the part the humble stick has played in developing the cognitive processes of the human species – from our early origins, to Ronnie O’Sullivan’s record-breaking frame of snooker.
A tale of decay: the Houses of Parliament are falling down
The iconic building of the British state is in a state of serious disrepair. It caught fire forty times in a four year period, and the list of required repairs is mind-boggling. Yet the way to deal with this increasingly pressing concern is not at all clear.
A Single Narrow Gasping Lung
The story of an extraordinary feat that took place in 1978 – the first ascent of Everest without supplementary oxygen. One of the final great barriers in human endurance was conquered by two strong characters known as “the terrible twins”.
To Catch a Counterfeiter
A representative from Pinkerton, a long-established American detective agency, takes the author on a tour of one of China’s counterfeiting hotspots.