Tricksters, Seers and Holy Fools: The Archetypes That Look Like Us
Hermes stole fifty cattle on the day he was born. Why tricksters, seers and holy fools turn up in myth after myth, and why the misfits keep walking back on stage.
Latest
science
How Do Homing Pigeons Find Their Way Home?
Drive a homing pigeon hundreds of kilometers from home and it still flies back. Scientists split the trick into a map and a compass, and the map half is still one of biology's great open puzzles.
Brain Cells in a Dish Learned to Play Pong. What That Says About Sensory Overload
Synthesis: Free Energy as the Logic of Becoming
Membrane Potential: Gibbs Free Energy Across Barriers
Diamonds and Graphite: Thermodynamics vs Kinetics
Phase Transitions: Why Ice Melts at Exactly 0°C
Protein Folding: Finding the Free Energy Minimum
human-meaning
Synthesis: What Our Fiction Says About Our Science
Synthesis: What Our Fiction Says About Our Science
We've traveled from clockwork universes to quantum branches, from Dune's attractor basins to Black Mirror's feedback traps. The journey reveals a single through-line: science fiction is the imagination processing what science means.
Not the technical
Black Mirror and Feedback Loops: Tech as Trap
Lem and Solaris: The Unknowable Other
Asimov's Psychohistory: Statistics as Prophecy
The MCU and Quantum Branching: Maximum Optionality
The Matrix and Wormholes: Neo Had More Choices
Dune and Attractor Basins: Paul Had to Do Jihad
biology
The CRISPR Babies: When He Jiankui Edited the Human Germline
The CRISPR Babies: When He Jiankui Edited the Human Germline
On November 25, 2018, a scientist named He Jiankui uploaded a series of videos to YouTube. He stood in what looked like a hotel conference room, speaking to the camera in careful English. He wore a blue button-down shirt.
Base Editing and Prime Editing: Beyond Cut and Paste
CRISPR: The Gene Editing Revolution
The CRISPR Revolution
Off-Target Effects: When CRISPR Cuts in the Wrong Place
Sickle Cell Cured: The First CRISPR Miracle
