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Mystery Illnesses Writ Large
Modern medicine fails abysmally to account for mass psychogenic illnesses — they’re uncanny and paradigm-altering.
Science & Technology
"The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not." — Gertrude Stein
On Kinds of Minds and Kinds of Racism
To understand what kind of racism we face, argues George Makari, we need to understand the type of mind that undergirds it.
Space Tourism and Nature Writing
Christopher Schaberg considers "Four Fifths a Grizzly" and the future of nature writing.
Semipublic Intellectual Sessions: “What Comes After CRISPR?”
A transcript of the panel discussion “What Comes After CRISPR?” – a satellite event of the Semipublic Intellectual Sessions, which took place on November 5.
Beautiful Lies: The Art of the Deep Fake
Nicholas Carr shows how Jonas Bendiksen’s beautiful photographs “open a door onto a weird and unsettling future.”
The Life Arboreal
Barbara Kiser reviews three books about our relationship to trees and the forest.
Heels: A New Account of the Double Helix
Nathaniel Comfort reviews Howard Markel's new book about Rosalind Franklin, "The Secret of Life."
“Scientific Nightmare”: The Backstory of the “DSM”
Andrew Scull gives stellar marks to Allan Horwitz’s history of the DSMs.
No Geniuses Here
W. Patrick McCray praises Eric Hintz’s new book on America’s independent inventors in the 20th century.
The Mystery of the Cosmos: What Exactly Are We Looking For?
The key to understanding the universe may lie in grasping the ways it replicates itself.
Blade Runner: Grass and Our Future
Louise Schiavone explains how leaves of grass in all their variety are “now a piece of the complex puzzle that might hold off carbon overload.”
The Invention of “Xenophobia”
George Makari describes xenophobia’s complicated history as a concept, and reveals the curious role of a lone stenographer.
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