The Thieves Who Steal Sunken Warships, Right Down to the Bolts
A piece looking at the thieves illegally salvaging sunken battleships.
Lizard Games
The author describes his “sordid double life” in Hackmud, a new online multiplayer game set in a dystopian future. The game itself is inaccessible in that you play the role of an AI, it is text based and you can only play by coding scripts, and yet the piece draws you in, painting a vivid picture of a lawless digital outpost, where no one is to be trusted, and everyone is on the make.
Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble
A piece positing the theory that over the 20 years since handover, Hong Kong has changed from a “model city” to a “cautionary tale”.
The unfinished business of immunotherapy
A look at the work of an immunotherapy pioneer seeking to advance the cancer treatments he helped to develop.
Skin in the Game
Like many popular video games the multiplayer first person shooter Counter-Strike is (very) big business, for star player and publisher alike. Less common is a secondary market for in game modifications that has developed into a minimally regulated multi-billion dollar gambling network.
The Detective of Northern Oddities
A veterinary pathologist in Alaska is getting more and more unusual and troubling cases amongst her workload of deceased sea otters, wales and polar bears.
Lost At Sea
The story of a couple who were on an American commercial ship sunk by a German U-Boat early in the war.
Take Nothing, Leave Nothing
The author tells the story of how he came to receive a lifetime ban from the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, and reflects on the nature of tourism.
How China is Rewriting the Book on Human Origins
Fossil finds in China lead to conflicting views of human origins.