10 April 2025
Solvej Balle's newly translated speculative novel, On the Calculation of Volume (parts I and II), examines the numbing effects of time through the old trope of being stuck in a single day. It is an effective meditation
12 October 2022
The cartoonist and engineer reveals what percentage of all humans who have ever lived are your ancestors, and what might happen if you pumped pure ammonia into your stomach (don't)
1 April 2020
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who discovered that hydrogen dominates our universe, finally gets the recognition she deserves in a rich biography, What Stars Are Made Of
25 March 2020
A new book from Jim Al-Khalili makes cutting-edge physics easily understandable and makes it clear why he fell in love with the subject as a teenager
18 February 2020
Brian Greene's new book argues that life is rare and extraordinary, probably transient, and that in the search for purpose, the only significant answers are ones we create
12 February 2020
This week, hide behind the sofa from mind-altering plants, listen and learn from technologies past and find out how the world is underpinned by numbers
4 September 2019
If you're struggling to understand the mysteries of quantum physics and relativity, you need all the help you can get – even borrowing Buddhist mysticism, shows a new book
22 May 2019
Watch Godzilla take on ancient superspecies, read how great mathematicians like Newton made numbers universal and play at escaping from a sinking research vessel
15 May 2019
In his monthly film column, Simon Ings finds that invoking the quantum world is a great way out for Avengers-style franchises when they want to mess with time
16 April 2019
Explore the life and work of director Stanley Kubrick, watch ancient folklore in an endangered language, and discover how emotion shapes the human brain
