Fruit flies helped us win six Nobel prizes in medicine. Architects have been inspired by termite hills. Ecologist Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson explains why bugs are so essential to the world we live in.
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Posted inNonfiction
I Entered the World’s Longest, Loneliest Horse Race on a Whim, and I Won
Somehow, implausibly, against all the odds, I became the youngest person and first woman ever to win the Mongol Derby. What made me so sure I was ready, when I was totally unprepared?
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘I Spent Two Years Researching Before I Wrote a Single Line’: Geeking Out With Marlon James
Man Booker winner Marlon James immersed himself in African myths and history, so he could use that world as a springboard for a new fantasy series.
Posted inNonfiction
Mountains, Transcending
“Ever since I was five years old,” wrote opera singer–turned–Buddhist lama Alexandra David-Néel, “I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Science & Nature, Story
Critics: Endgame
If there’s no earth, there’s no art. How do you engage in cultural criticism at the end of the world?
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2020: Writing on COVID-19
Our top story picks in COVID-19 reporting this year.
Posted inNonfiction
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare
In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Susan Potter Will Live Forever
When Susan Potter died of pneumonia at the age of 87, she donated her body to the Visible Human Project so it could be sliced and photographed. The images would be digitized and used to create a virtual cadaver that medical students could use to dissect and reassemble with the stroke of a few keys.
Posted inHighlight, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
‘Someone Took Care to Get it Right’: The Birds of the Seven Kingdoms
On the delightfully nerdy role of birds and bird calls in Game of Thrones.
Posted inCurrent Events, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story
Atlantic City Is Really Going Down This Time
There’s no doubt that Atlantic City is going under. The only question left is: Can an entire city donate its body to science?
