We are just one branch of a diverse human family tree. Aside from Neanderthals, who were they – and why did we replace them?

Smallpox went from a feared killer to a fading memory. Its eradication is one of humanity’s greatest collective triumphs ...

First the rush, then the reality – how a cryptocurrency pyramid scheme spread faster than a virus in a sleepy Georgia town ...

An optical poem featuring audio of W H Auden’s ode to trees paired with art from the Met and outdoor footage of New York state ...

The world’s isms – capitalism, socialism, fascism and so on – explored through the analogy of your mum doing the washing ...

is associate lecturer in moral, legal and political philosophy at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He is the author of The Ethics of State Responses to Refugees (2024).

A captivating story from Aardman Animations about a ‘little thief’ turned career criminal who just can’t break the habit ...

Imagining how aliens might communicate prepares us for first contact and illuminates the nature of our own languages ...

For all the promise and dangers of AI, computers plainly can’t think. To think is to resist – something no machine does We can split light by a prism, sounds by tones, but surely the world of odour is ...

is director of Maryland Neuroimaging Center, principal investigator at the Laboratory of Cognition and Emotion, and professor of psychology at the University of Maryland. He is the author of The ...

W Eugene Smith’s photos of the Minamata disaster are both exquisite and horrifying. How might we now look at them?