What is An Atom?
Despite wearing bed sheets for every occasion, the ancient Greeks were smart enough to conceive of atoms as building blocks of the universe.
What is Schrodinger's Cat?
Schrodinger's Cat is a thought experiment created in 1935 by a brilliant scientist who loved quantum physics and hated cats.
Could The Last of Us Happen?
What would it take for the parasitic Cordyceps fungus to make the jump from arthropods to humans and turn us all into saprophytic zombies?
The Biology of Depression
Sapolsky says depression is a biochemical disorder with genetic and experiential influences which means you can't enjoy sunsets anymore.
Can We Live on Mars?
What are the challenges of colonising Mars? A look at terraforming and artificial life support to make Mars habitable for humans.
How Do Jellyfish Have Sex?
Jellyfish mastered sex long before us. Frankly, we're the ones odd-balling it with our penises, vaginas, and miserable childbirth.
15 Popular Science Books
Reading is like getting into another person's brain pool and swimming around in their knowledge. There is only one rule. DON'T PEE IN THE POOL.
Best Lex Fridman Podcasts
Lex Fridman hosts a popular science podcast in which he digs into the minds of world-class experts and extracts intellectual treasures.
How Does ChatGPT Work?
ChatGPT is a Large Language Model that uses machine learning to do some very clever things that will not literally blow your socks off.
The Life of Elon Musk
So you have this dream of changing the world? For Elon Musk, this isn't enough. His ambitions are multiplanetary.
Viruses: Genes Gone Rogue
Viruses are runaway genes that meddle with our cells, also known as mobile genetic elements, intracellular parasites, or freeloading gits.
16 Giant Leaps in Animal Evolution
Come on an evolutionary marathon from the first clumps of cells wobbling about in the ocean, to the cracking diversity of animal life we see today.
How Does DNA Work?
DNA isn't just a blueprint for embryos; you're expressing your DNA right now all around your body as if you have a clue what you're doing.
Where Do Cells Come From?
Around 3.8 billion years ago, there was a primordial soup; a tad watery and flavourless, but with some promising ingredients nonetheless.
How Does Gene Therapy Work?
Gene therapy is a brilliant and terrifying emerging technology that uses viruses to deliver DNA payloads to faulty body cells to restore their function.
The State of Climate Change
An overview of natural and man-made climate change, including past, present, and forecast data on global temperatures and sea levels.
Are We Biological Machines?
We breathe, grow, and reproduce on autopilot; so what are the mechanisms behind consciousness that could potentially lead to free will?
Neuralink and You
A Link is a coin-sized panel of microchips, a battery, and 3,000 electrodes along hair-thin neural threads. And it goes inside your skull.
A Man Walks into a Teleporter
He pauses for thought while it scans every molecule in his body, makes a digital copy, and proceeds to annihilate his physical body.
The Origins of Language
Of all 21 species of humans that have walked the Earth, we seem to be the only one who developed complex spoken and written languages.
How Does Evolution Work?
Evolution connects all life on Earth; whether you're a marine worm or a marmoset, the same genetic code proliferates your DNA.
Helium Could Save Our Planet
Vast reserves of helium-3 on the Moon could supply nuclear fusion reactors on Earth, offering a clean energy source for millenia to come.
How Does Conditioning Work?
My friend Sutton here volunteered for a harmless experiment in classical conditioning. Great! Let's start by gouging him roughly in the eye.
Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think
Dogs have greater social intelligence than our closest primate cousins, thanks to living symbiotically with humans for 40,000 years.
The Evolution of SARS-CoV-2
The family tree of human coronaviruses and how SARS-CoV-2 mutates through the process of rapid antigenic drift.
Who Owns Your Organs?
It's not you—it's me. Besides a pseudo-compassionate breakup line, it's also the answer to an ethical minefield of a question that arises when you die.
A Real Body-Snatching Parasite
Meet my associate, Curtuteria australis, a parasitic flatworm who takes three hosts during his convoluted lifecycle.
What COVID Does To Your Body
As the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolves, so too does the pathology of COVID, now classed as a vascular disease that can cause multi-system dysfunction.
Nanomedicine is Here
Nanomedicine is shaping our lives, with 50+ nanomedicines already approved by the FDA, including the lipid nanoparticles in mRNA vaccines.
12 Rules for Life Illustrated
12 Rules for Life is a psychological manifesto from a man who's making a giant existential omelette and breaking more than a few eggs in the process.
The Life of Nikola Tesla
Despite his groundbreaking inventions, Tesla was branded a lunatic; at one low point he even saw his private New York lab burned to the ground.
The Life of Isaac Asimov
Asimov's Nightfall is an archetypal social science fiction, moving away from gadgets and towards exploration of the human condition.
How Was Stonehenge Built?
In the 5,000 years since it was built, Stonehenge has been eroded by weather, sunken by earthworms, and picked at by handsy tourists.