Do you think a giant asteroid caused the earth’s most recent mass extinction? Princeton paleontologist Gerta Keller has a competing theory, and her decades of research have earned her so much ire in the scientific community that she keeps a list of insults others have thrown at her.
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Posted inNonfiction
How Google Discovered the Value of Surveillance
In 2002, still reeling from the dot-com crash, Google realized they’d been harvesting a very valuable raw material — your behavior.
Posted inBooks, Commentary
This Week in Books: Pale Horse on the One Hand, Pale Rider on the Other
I sometimes forget that it’s all the same thing.
Posted inStory
But Who Tells Them What To Sing?
“And thus another Hollywood tradition was born: film choruses belting out perfectly nonsensical prose with utter conviction.”
Posted inNonfiction
The Difficult Case for Assisted Plant Migration
To protect them from climate change, concerned citizens are moving clones of California’s ancient sequoias to Oregon in a process known as assisted migration, but should they?
Posted inNonfiction
The Curious Tale of the Salish Sea Feet
To date, 21 disembodied feet have washed up on the shores of Seattle’s Salish Sea. What at first looked like the work of a serial killer turned out to be something even more unsettling: A message from the ocean about who we are.
Posted inStory
Longreads Best of 2020: Sports and Games
With leagues across the world undergoing cancellations for much of the year, 2020 has been an interesting one in the world of sports. Here are some stories that resonated with us.
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, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Science & Nature, Story
Why Bugs Deserve Our Respect
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.
Posted inBlog Post, Current Events
The Podcast That Explains Why We’re All Wrong
How Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes debunk news scandals of the past.
