Critical thinking
The importance of being absurdist: Why Frank Zappa’s music holds a lesson for all of us
The rock icon pushed boundaries—and inspired weirdos the world over
Carlo Rovelli on his search for the theory of everything
Can quantum physics reveal the secrets of the universe—as well as humanity’s entangled nature?
What it’s like to be a virus
They can hijack genes, spread exponentially and bring the world to a halt—but are they alive?
How a fiction writer becomes a conspiracy theorist
I teach creative writing at a university, and have seen former students descend into online conspiracy. What does this say about the impulse to write, and the impulse to share?
Can we make the post-Brexit relationship with the EU work?
My parliamentary committee has studied the outstanding issues. Both sides should put aside the antagonism and solve them together
Ishiguro’s AI tale for our times
Klara and the Sun is narrated by a robot who looks after a sick teenager. But the real drama is at the edge of the story
The mind of God? The problem with deifying Stephen Hawking
A new biography argues the iconic physicist was shamelessly self-promoting and his reputation overrated
Homeschooling has revealed the absurdity of England’s national curriculum
My eight-year-old daughter is being called to spot expanded noun phrases. My 11-year-old son fills in checklists of "success criteria." Are we raising children or robots?
Conservatism: the longest view
Nationalists might appear to be routing Tory liberals. But it’s just the continuation of a centuries-long struggle between two tribes
What it's like to be... a pigeon
They have a bad reputation. But these “rats of the sky” have remarkable skills far beyond human comprehension
How Adam Curtis gets into your head
The filmmaker talks about tyranny, the limitations of progressive politics, and myth of England
Palmyra and the myth of civilisation
Dividing the world into the civilised and the barbarians is no way to understand Syria’s tragedy