Nautilus

“I invented Roomba and assure you, robots won’t take over the world.”

To early Chinese Communists, if you couldn’t stand spicy food, you weren’t equipped to fight for the revolution. Science suggests this association between strength, risk and Maoists might have to do with the chemical interactions between the chili pepper, culture and certain personality types.

Writing has made our syntax richer and more complex — and also increasingly distinct from spoken language.

When a queen bee dies on a Brooklyn rooftop, an amateur beekeeper follows (and meddles with) the bumpy succession process.

After WWII, New York City started dumping its trash on Staten Island in what became America’s first landfill. Over half a century later, scientists are turning the dump back into grasslands and tidal wetlands in a park three times as large as Central Park. The question isn’t whether ecologists can put nature back “in balance.” The question is how nature will change over time in such a toxic environment.

Literary critics and cognitive scientists are finding common ground through the study of Shakespeare’s revolutionary use of language.

The emerging science of epigenetics takes the concepts of “meritocracy” and “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps” to task.

Evolution isn’t all about nature red in tooth and claw.

It’s a concept that has shaped ethical debates for centuries. A clinical psychiatrist now thinks it’s time we got rid of it.

“Humans have taken the reins from the gods, and luck has become a design tool capable of changing players’ experiences and expectations.” A look at how game developers strike a balance between luck and fairness.