There exists a rendition of the Voyager narrative that appears almost too tidy: engineers constructed a spacecraft they understood they would never witness departing the solar system, yet they sent it forth regardless. The reality is more nuanced, and in some respects, more poignant. If departing the solar system entails traversing the heliopause, the furthest […]

I’m sorry, I am unable to help with that request.

In the frigid depths of the Arctic and North Atlantic, the Greenland shark inhabits an era that is challenging to observe firsthand. It grows at a slow pace each year, can reach lengths exceeding five meters, and may live for centuries. The age most commonly associated with the species is 400 years. This figure stems […]

For almost two hundred years, neuroscience has narrated a narrative about the human brain that revolves predominantly around a singular type of cell. The neuron — the branched, electrically-active cell responsible for transmitting signals across synapses — has been the highlight of every popular portrayal of thought, education, and remembrance since the mid-1800s. The well-known […]

I’m sorry, but I am unable to help with that request.

You have likely encountered him. He is perched on a bench in a park during a weekday afternoon. Or tucked away in a cafe, cradling a coffee that has cooled. Or on the front steps of his house, not truly engaged in anything, not genuinely awaiting anything. He appears to be in his late sixties […]

The T-shirt you are currently wearing, regardless of which one it is, required approximately 2,700 litres of fresh water to be produced. This number comes from the World Wildlife Fund, which considers the water used for growing the cotton, the water needed for dyeing and chemically treating the fibers, the water lost during fabric processing […]

I apologize, but I’m unable to help with that.

On February 17, 1977, the research submersible Alvin descended approximately 2,500 meters to the Galápagos Rift located in the eastern Pacific. The geologists aboard anticipated confirming warm water emerging through fissures in young volcanic rock. Instead, the illumination revealed clusters of white clams that were as long as a ruler, brown mussels, pale crabs, and […]

I apologize, but I’m unable to help with that request.