With unique perspectives and innovative practices, this eclectic selection highlights the richness and variety of the country’s contemporary art scene You may know about Jean Tinguely, Alberto Giacometti, or Meret Oppenheim – monumental figures of art history who were either born or spent their lives in Switzerland. But what about the many artists that contribute...
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Early Visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-Century Astronomer Who Used Science Fiction to Imagine the Red Planet
Living in today’s age of ambitious robotic exploration of Mars, with an eventual human mission to the red planet likely to happen one day, it is hard to imagine a time when Mars was a mysterious and unreachable world. And yet, before the invention of the rocket, astronomers who wanted to explore Mars beyond what...
Why Brazil’s Quilombola Communities Are Still Fighting for the Land They’re Owed
Brazil’s quilombola people, the descendants of Africans who escaped slavery, have lived in the nation’s vast Amazon and Atlantic rainforests for centuries. Today, the quilombolas number about 1.3 million people in the country and have cultivated deep ties to their ancestral territories, where they raise their families and steward the land. But these communities remain...
One Single Rule Helps Explain Life from Ocean Depths to Open Savannas
A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has found a simple rule that seems to govern how life is organised on Earth. The researchers believe this rule helps explain why species are spread the way they are across the planet. The discovery will help to understand life on Earth – including how ecosystems respond to global...
Inside a Cup of Turkish Coffee: How a Mystic Drink Impacted Politics, Cultures, and Lifestyles in Europe and the Middle East
In the centuries since the first coffeehouse was opened in Istanbul in 1554, Turkish coffee has brought together people of different classes, cultures and ranks and helped shape politics and lifestyles, Ali Çaksu, visiting professor of history and political thought at Germany’s Ludwig Maximilian University, told a scientific forum at the University of Sharjah last...
The Silent Force Behind Online Echo Chambers? Your Google Search
In an era defined by polarized views on everything from public health to politics, a new Tulane University study offers insight into why people may struggle to change their minds—especially when they turn to the internet for answers. Researchers found that people often use search engines in ways that unintentionally reinforce their existing beliefs. The study, published...
Yale Launches Center for Civic Thought to Promote Thoughtful Discourse
Immediately after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, a group of 10 Yale students from a variety of backgrounds convened on campus to discuss the unthinkable. Brought together by the university’s Civic Thought Initiative (CTI), which encourages open dialogue on difficult issues in small, seminar-style settings, the group included Jewish students with diverging views...
Florida Inventors Hall of Fame Announces 2025 Inductees: Celebrating the Visionaries Behind the Breakthroughs
The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame is proud to announce its 2025 inductees — 10 pioneering inventors whose groundbreaking contributions span disciplines ranging from nanotechnology and regenerative medicine to energy systems and video technologies. Their work has established and reshaped entire fields, propelled scientific progress and exemplified the spirit of innovation that defines Florida’s growing ecosystem...
AI Meets the Conditions for Having Free Will – We Need to Give It a Moral Compass
AI is advancing at such speed that speculative moral questions, once the province of science fiction, are suddenly real and pressing, says Finnish philosopher and psychology researcher Frank Martela Martela’s latest study finds that generative AI meets all three of the philosophical conditions of free will — the ability to have goal-directed agency, make genuine...
From Defenders to Skeptics: the Sharp Decline in Young Americans’ Support for Free Speech
For much of the 20th century, young Americans were seen as free speech’s fiercest defenders. But now, young Americans are growing more skeptical of free speech. According to a March 2025 report by The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank where I am executive director, support among 18- to 34-year-olds for allowing controversial...