Science & Technology

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

A People’s History of Slime: On Two New Books About Ooze
Mariella Rudi reviews Susanne Wedlich’s “Slime: A Natural History” and Christopher Michlig’s “File Under: Slime.”
Mariella RudiDec 17, 2023
Again, Again, Again: On Carmen Machado and J. Robert Lennon’s “Critical Hits” and Frank Lantz’s “The Beauty of Games”
Neuroscientist Patrick House reviews two new books on the art of repetition in video games—“Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games,” edited by Carmen Machado and J. Robert Lennon, and “The Beauty of Games” by Frank Lantz.
Patrick HouseNov 29, 2023
Whither Queer Biology? On Richard O. Prum’s “Performance All the Way Down”
Banu Subramaniam gets whiplash when she reads Richard O. Prum’s “Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference.” For a book engaging with queer theory, it is decidedly unqueer, she writes.
Banu SubramaniamNov 15, 2023
- Gender & Sexuality
- Science & Technology
What Is Internet Art Actually Doing? On Omar Kholeif’s “Internet_Art”
Cal Revely-Calder finds much to appreciate, and more to decry, in Omar Kholeif’s “Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs.”
Cal Revely-CalderNov 11, 2023
The Bulgarian Computer’s Global Reach: On Victor Petrov’s “Balkan Cyberia”
Alex Langstaff calls “Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing, Bulgarian Modernization, and the Information Age Behind the Iron Curtain” a must-read for anyone interested in how the Iron Curtain was circumvented in the digital age.
Alex LangstaffNov 10, 2023
Everything Is Embedded in What Came Before: A Conversation with Robert M. Sapolsky
Julien Crockett interviews Robert M. Sapolsky, author of “Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will.”
Julien CrockettOct 22, 2023
State Eyes in the Sky: On the History of Helicopters in Policing
In a preview of the new LARB Quarterly, no. 39: “Air,” Nicholas Shapiro, Kate McInerny, Matyos Kidane, and Jacobo Pereira-Pacheco discuss the effects and racialized nature of police-helicopter monitoring and the noise pollution these machines produce.
Jacobo Pereira-Pacheco, Kate McInerny, Matyos Kidane, Nicholas ShapiroOct 13, 2023
Ask Not What Your Robot Can Do for You, but What You Can Do for Your Robot
Jerrine Tan visits a LOVOT robotics lab and is unexpectedly enchanted.
Jerrine TanOct 4, 2023
A Fireball in the Marshall Islands: How a Nuclear Test Changed the World
Émile P. Torres describes how it was not the dropping of the atom bombs in 1945 but the testing of a nuclear bomb is the Marshall Islands in 1954 that marked the moment when people became preoccupied with human extinction.
Émile P. TorresSep 20, 2023
Weaponized Plumbing: On Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman’s “Underground Empire”
Krzysztof Pelc mostly agrees with Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman’s “Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy” but quibbles that it’s hard to draw the line between the peculiarly 21st-century type of influence they describe—which flows from fiber-optic cables, data centers, and dollar clearinghouses—and more conventional types of power.
Krzysztof PelcSep 13, 2023
Perma-noon: On Light Pollution and the Way We Talk About the Natural World
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 39: “Air,” Lauren Collee explores the history of light pollution.
Lauren ColleeSep 4, 2023
- LARB Lit
- Science & Technology
Fact, Fiction, and the Father of the Bomb: On Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”
Alex Wellerstein assesses the depiction of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film.
Alex WellersteinAug 30, 2023