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Some of My Best Friends Are Germs

I can tell you the exact date that I began to think of myself in the first-person plural — as a superorganism, that is, rather than a plain old individual human being. It happened on Marc
PUBLISHED: May 15, 2013
LENGTH: 30 minutes (7705 words)

Why We'll Never Meet Aliens

If you combine all our current knowledge of statistics and astronomy, it's nearly comical to believe we're the only intelligent life in the universe. It's easy to get lost in the numbers thrown…
AUTHOR:Paul Tyma
PUBLISHED: April 28, 2013
LENGTH: 8 minutes (2091 words)

What If We Never Run Out of Oil?

New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle—and a nightmare. Ralph Wilson/AP As the great research ship Chikyu left…
LENGTH: 43 minutes (10854 words)
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smaller

November 26, 2001ANNALS OF TECHNOLOGY The disposable diaper and the meaning of progress. The best way to explore the mystery of the Huggies Ultratrim disposable diaper is to unfold it and then cut it…
LENGTH: 15 minutes (3767 words)

THE EXPLODING TOILET and Other Memories

ONE OLD ADAGE  defines the business of flying planes as long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Moments of sheer ridiculousness, maybe, are equally as harrowing. One…
LENGTH: 9 minutes (2416 words)
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A giant cage

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO Bill Clinton, then America’s president, said that trying to control the internet in China would be like trying to “nail Jell-O to the wall”. At the time he…
PUBLISHED: April 4, 2013
LENGTH: 7 minutes (1902 words)
2 RETWEETs

Bodog, the real Mongolian Barbecue

The herd on the move. Photographs by Khasar Sandag for Roads & Kingdoms Upon landing in Ulaanbaatar, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Mongolian barbecue is not Mongolian at all. Genghis…
LENGTH: 10 minutes (2701 words)

He Who Makes the Rules

March/ April 2013 He Who Makes the Rules Barack Obama’s biggest second-term challenge isn’t guns or immigration. It’s saving his biggest first-term achievements, like the…
LENGTH: 40 minutes (10177 words)

To Build a (Better) Fire

By Burkhard BilgerIllustration by Dan Page Two men walked into a bar called the Axe and Fiddle. It was a Thursday night in early August in the town of Cottage Grove, Oregon, and the house was full.…
LENGTH: 16 minutes (4035 words)
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