I'm the chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review
It looks like there are body parts everywhere. That’s how Steve Butler knows he has come to the right place. There are at least three noses on the counter. There’s a stack of eyes, and a box full of ears and fingers. In the corner, there’s the
A little over a year ago, scientists reported on a large area at the foot of the Asperillo cliff, on the coast of the Doñana Natural Area in Huelva, Spain. There, along with numerous animal footprints, other footprints had been found – those of hominids. Until then, the only time reference
In the 1920s, the auto industry chased people off the streets of America, says Clive Thompson, by waging a brilliant psychological campaign. They convinced the public that if you got run over by a car, it was your fault. Pedestrians were to blame. People didn’t belong in the streets;
A group of researchers announced on Wednesday that they had simulated a pair of black holes in a quantum computer and sent a message between them through a shortcut in space-time called a wormhole. Physicists described the achievement as another small step in the effort to understand the relation
Almost one quarter of the Number One hits on the American music charts between 1958 and 1990 were in multiple keys, like Michael Jackson's “Man in the Mirror,” where the key change is one of the most memorable things about the song. At the 2 minute and 52
The Isle of Vaila is a 757-acre emerald chunk of land topped with a herd of heritage sheep and a 17th-century mansion built to resemble a castle. The longtime owners are selling for $2 million. The island is one of roughly 100 islands in the Shetland Islands archipelago
One morning in June, before dawn, cyclists began gathering at an intersection in Emporia, Kansas, to remember the victim of a recent murder. The early-morning cyclists were about to begin a memorial ride for Moriah Wilson, one of the sport’s leading athletes. She had died three weeks earlier,
Seven types of viruses that have lain frozen in the Siberian permafrost for thousands of years have been revived. The youngest of these viruses were frozen for 27,000 years, while the oldest was on ice for 48,500 years old – making it the most ancient virus resuscitated so far.
A team of researchers have cracked a five century-old code that reveals a rumoured French plot to kill the Roman emperor and king of Spain Charles V. Charles was one of the most powerful men of the 16th century, presiding over a vast empire that took in much of
The Jurassic Park movies made it pretty obvious that bringing ancient creatures back to life was a very bad idea, but one company is trying to do it anyway. Sara Ord works at a "de-extinction" company called Colossal Biosciences, where they are trying to bring back everything
The idea that a parasite can cause its host to engage in certain kinds of behavior is not new – a brain-eating parasite attacks ants and then directs them to climb up the tallest blade of grass so they can be eaten by birds. But some researchers believe that a
In the winter of 2002, a young American named Ryan Neil joined an unusual pilgrimage: he and several others flew to Tokyo, to begin a tour of Japan’s finest collections of bonsai trees. The next-youngest adult in the group was fifty-seven. Like many Americans of his generation,