Opinion | The Butterfly Net and the Magic of Attention
If you have ever gone bird watching, or looked for wildflowers or mushrooms, or hunted for deer or rabbits, you will know the strange enchantment of searching for nature’s hidden…
Opinion | How Trump Could Wreck Things for Republicans in 2024
Things just got a whole lot more interesting in New Hampshire politics. Just below the presidential churn, the governor’s race in the politically quirky Granite State has some superjuicy drama…
Opinion | What ‘Oppenheimer’ Doesn’t Tell You About the Trinity Test
July is a hard month for a lot of us here in New Mexico, where thousands of people’s lives were upended by the test of the world’s first nuclear bomb.…
Inside the Party Switch that Blew Up North Carolina Politics
When Tricia Cotham, a former Democratic lawmaker, was considering another run for the North Carolina House of Representatives, she turned to a powerful party leader for advice. Then, when she…
But Who Gets the Comic Books?
“More times than I can remember, a spouse or child has said to me, ‘If he wasn’t dead, I’d kill him all over again for leaving me with this mess,’”…
The Legacy Dilemma: What to Do About Privileges for the Privileged?
When Kathleen James-Chakraborty received her acceptance letter to Yale on April 17, 1978, there was little doubt in her mind that a crucial factor helped secure her spot: Her father…
Russia Takes Its Ukraine Information War Into Video Games
Russian propaganda is spreading into the world’s video games. In Minecraft, the immersive game owned by Microsoft, Russian players re-enacted the battle for Soledar, a city in Ukraine that Russian…
A Theory of Childbirth’s Evolution May Not Be What You’re Expecting
It’s a question on every new parent’s exhausted mind: Why are babies born so helpless? In 1960, an American anthropologist laid out an influential explanation rooted in human evolution. As…
In Israel, High Stakes for High Court: Democracy’s Fate
When the Israeli Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it would review a new law designed to curb its power, it set up a complicated choice for itself. Will it directly…
The Secret History of Gun Rights: How Lawmakers Armed the N.R.A.
Long before the National Rifle Association tightened its grip on Congress, won over the Supreme Court and prescribed more guns as a solution to gun violence — before all that,…