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Science and technology

Science & Nature

The Why of the World

Allured by the promise of Big Data, science has shortchanged causal explanation in favor of data-driven prediction. But ultimately we must ask why.

Tim Maudlin

Science & Nature

Is Science Political?

Many take the separation between science and politics for granted, but this view of science has its own political history: it was developed, in part, as an anti-communist tool of the Cold War.

Michael D. Gordin

Science & Nature

Is There a Human Blueprint?

Two new books from intellectual giants Robert Plomin and Nicholas Christakis revive the “nature vs. nurture” debate about what makes people different from one another.

C. Brandon Ogbunu, C. Malik Boykin

Arts in Society

A World of Electric Children

Science fiction author Ted Chiang wrote the story for the Academy Award–winning film Arrival. Now his new collection of short stories gives us further glimpses of possible futures.

John Crowley

Gender & Sexuality, Science & Nature

Who's Your Daddy?

The meaning of fatherhood remains elusive, even in the age of DNA-based paternity testing.

Nara Milanich

Race

Black Resistance in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley

In Revilletown, which was founded by freed slaves, a petrochemical company has seized ownership of an ancestral cemetery. But an attack on the dead is an attack on the living.

Robin McDowell

Forum

Democracy's Dilemma

Democracies rely on the free exchange of ideas and information, but that freedom can also be weaponized to erode democratic debate. How can democratic societies protect—and protect themselves from—the free flow of digital information?

Henry Farrell, Bruce Schneier

U.S.

Democracy's Dilemma

Democracies rely on the free exchange of ideas and information, but that freedom can also be weaponized to erode democratic debate. How can democratic societies protect—and protect themselves from—the free flow of digital information?

Henry Farrell, Bruce Schneier

Race

The Mismeasure of Minds

Twenty-five years later, The Bell Curve’s analysis of race and intelligence refuses to die. Reckoning with its legacy may help redirect the conversation in urgently needed ways.

Michael E. Staub

Science & Nature

Climate Gut Check

Beneath the jargon, a new UN report serves up a revolutionary response to climate change.

Troy Vettese

Politics

The Digital is Political

The political ideas we have held for centuries are ill-equipped to respond to today's challenges.

Clara Hendrickson

Arts in Society

Who's Got Personality?

The Myers-Briggs Bias: An Interview with Merve Emre

Merve Emre, Deborah Chasman

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