Every quest holds at its heart a puzzle to solve—and that puzzle can become an obsession.
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Elizabeth Wurtzel, Nick Martin, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, David Wolman, and Jason Turbow.
Finding Solace in the Charged Particles of the Aurora Borealis
“Cree First Nations believe ‘the northern lights are dancing spirits of loved ones who have passed on.’”
Longreads Best of 2014: Science Stories
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories. Here, the best in science writing.
‘Probabilities Mess With Our Heads’
Conventional wisdom tells us that people are terrible with numbers. But as Kent realized back in the 1950s, we are even worse with words. In one study that Fischhoff co-authored, people had trouble understanding a 30-percent chance of rain. It wasn’t the probability that tripped them up, but the word: rain. Are we talking drizzle […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. * * * 1. The Boy with Half a Brain Michael Rubino | Indianapolis Monthly | Aug. 26, 2014 | 19 minutes (4,866 words) words) Jeff […]
Writer Brendan I. Koerner: My Top 5 Longreads of 2011
Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and the author of Now the Hell Will Start and Piano Demon. He is currently working on a book about a spectacular 1970s heist and its decades-long aftermath, and he blogs daily at Microkhan. *** I’m a thousand percent certain that I’ll wake up in a […]
Researchers study a small group of patients who underwent surgery that split their brains: Through studies of this group, neuroscientists now know that the healthy brain can look like two markedly different machines, cabled together and exchanging a torrent of data. But when the primary cable is severed, information — a word, an object, a […]

