Zoo expert reveals 3 reasons why Chicago’s ‘rat hole’ might not be a rat
The rat-shaped imprint in a Roscoe Village sidewalk has become not just a local attraction, but one now known around the country. The fandom has even led many to bring…
Alien ecosystems and the algae menace
All of us live embedded in webs of life known as ecosystems, and that can get pretty creepy -- or astonishingly beautiful. Inspired by the mind-blowing new animated series Scavengers…
Masks work. Wear one.
Bill Nye
James Bridle on our New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future
As the world around us increases in technological complexity, our understanding of it diminishes. Underlying this trend is a single idea: the belief that our existence is understandable through computation,…
Our Opinions Are Correct: Why Silicon Valley is doomed to misunderstand the future, with Dr. Joy Buolamwini
Silicon Valley markets itself as the place where futures are born, and yet tech corporations have no real understanding of where our civilizations are headed. We are wrapping up our…
Empire of the Sum – 99% Invisible
Whether or not you’re a fan of math, we’ve always had a need to count things. Maybe it’s to figure out the maximum weight an airplane can safely hold, or…
The Voice Inside
Many of us talk to ourselves in our heads pretty much all day long. But it turns out that there are plenty of people who don’t. In fact, thinking comes…
Allusionist 180. Project ENABLE
Sterling Martin was in grad school, studying C. elegans worms, when COVID19 hit and suddenly he found himself in lexicography, as part of a team creating a Navajo-English dictionary of…
Mayan Calendar
Did you know the Maya used 4 different combinations of calendars to keep track of time and different celestial cycles?
Our ancestor contracted a virus
millions of years later, we still have it