Science & Technology

"The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not." — Gertrude Stein

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  The Astronomy of Melancholy

  Arnaud Gerspacher considers “Sad Planets” by Dominic Pettman and Eugene Thacker.

  Arnaud GerspacherJun 14

  • Science & Technology

  • SF

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  Terminal Delirium

  From the perspective of her own experience as a neurologist, Pria Anand critically reads Michael Erard’s “Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words.”

  Pria AnandMay 24

  • Science & Technology

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  What Would It Take to Re-Sacralize Nature?

  Ellen Wayland-Smith admires how Robert Macfarlane’s “Is a River Alive?” places the reader in immersive contact with the nature we regard as mere backdrop to human activity.

  Ellen Wayland-SmithMay 20

  • Science & Technology

  • Environment

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  AI Nightmares: Rise of the Dead Souls

  Michael Berry sees warning signs of the creep of AI into education and translation work.

  Michael Berry May 16

  • Science & Technology

  • Education

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  Clean Energy, Dirt on Our Hands

  Greg Barnhisel reviews “Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future” by Vince Beiser.

  Greg BarnhiselMay 9

  • Politics

  • Science & Technology

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  Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests

  In the eighth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Pepper Stetler explores the troubling history of IQ tests and special education.

  Pepper StetlerMay 8

  • Science & Technology

  • History

  • Politics

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  The Teeming Earth

  Bathsheba Demuth reviews Ferris Jabr’s “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life.”

  Bathsheba DemuthMay 5

  • Science & Technology

  • Environment

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  Modernity’s Slumber Factory

  Ian Ellison considers Sebastian P. Klinger’s “Sleep Works: Experiments in Science and Literature, 1899–1929.”

  Ian EllisonApr 26

  • Literary Criticism

  • Science & Technology

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  Medicine and Lucre

  While looking at three recent books, physician Luke Messac explains why the public has legitimate reasons to distrust our healthcare system.

  Luke MessacApr 14

  • Science & Technology

  • Economics and Finance

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  What Can Enlightened Coders Really Do?

  Evan Selinger reads Darryl Campbell’s “Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software” with the realities his students face in mind.

  Evan SelingerApr 10

  • Science & Technology

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  The Man Who Believed He Could Have Raised Hitler to Be a Nice Person

  Åsmund Borgen Gjerde excavates the link between Ole Ivar Lovaas’s Nazi past and his UCLA-based work on “curing” autistic children.

  Åsmund Borgen GjerdeApr 10

  • Science & Technology

  • Biography & Autobiography

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  Embrangled Banks

  David Toomey delights in Banu Subramaniam’s “Botany of Empire: Plant Worlds and the Scientific Legacies of Colonialism.”

  David ToomeyMar 27

  • Science & Technology