How to build a real lightsaber
It’s not easy – but we are moving in the right direction.
Primary Results
The end of scientific, rational thinking: Donald Trump, Doug Ford and Jordan Peterson
Rationality is the newest casualty of populist philosophy.
Sweating the (really) small stuff?
When everybody was reading 50 Shades of Grey, I resisted: a) if I’m seeking prose to masturbate to, I don’t need a whole novel, and b) from my sketchy knowledge of the plot I’m pretty sure that I’ve been…
Science’s credibility crisis: why it will get worse before it can get better
We are observing two new phenomena. On one hand doubt is shed on the quality of entire scientific fields or sub-fields. On the other this doubt is played out in the open, in the media and blogosphere.
I bet it’s biased: one easy step to squash expert opinions
Accusations of scientific bias are the new catch-all weapon for anti-science commentators and climate deniers. Why are they effective? New research shows they may exploit part of our psychology. Climate…
D‑day’s secret weapon: how wetland science stopped the Normandy landings from getting bogged down
Scientists with expertise in mud and peat were a key part of planning the Normandy landings in 1944.
What 70 years of AI on film can tell us about the human relationship with artificial intelligence
The prevailing human reaction to the idea of artificial intelligence has always been fear, revealed in the way film has portrayed our increasingly important relationship with AI over the years.
Ukraine’s long‑awaited counteroffensive has finally begun ‑ but why now and to what end?
Ukraine’s recapture of villages in the Donetsk region in early June raises a myriad of questions.
An ode to mac and cheese, the poster child for processed food
A food historian explains how the popular boxed dinner played an important role in kitchen science, wars and women’s liberation.
The mystic and the mathematician: What the towering 20th‑century thinkers Simone and André Weil can teach today’s math educators
André Weil was a mathematician. His sister Simone Weil was a philosopher. They both thought deeply about the nature and value of mathematics and mathematics education.