Stories by The MIT Press Reader

A crop of a portrait of Galileo Galilei by Justus Sustermans.

Space & PhysicsAugust 15, 2026

388 years ago Galileo worked out why human giants can’t exist—and explained a law of physics

Giants have featured in stories for millennia, but the reason why they don’t exist helps explain the natural world

Joel David Hamkins, The MIT Press Reader

Aerial perspective of a container port, Shenzhen, China

OceansJuly 24, 2026

How lost shipping containers helped map the world’s ocean currents

Thousands of shipping containers vanish every year—what becomes of them?

Alexander Klose, The MIT Press Reader

A woolly mammoth roams through a snowy environment, displaying its large size and distinct tusks. The icy surroundings highlight the ice age setting and the mammal's fur. This is a 3d render illustration

AnimalsJuly 10, 2026

Why the controversy over de-extinction risks missing the point

Efforts to revive the thylacine and woolly mammoth are forcing conservationists to face a long-overdue debate over what kind of natural world we want to build

Taylor Dotson, The MIT Press Reader

3 frames of same baby wired and participating in listening experiment.

BehaviorJanuary 10, 2024

It Turns Out We Were Born To Groove

The evolution of beat perception likely unfolded gradually among primates, reaching its pinnacle in humans

Henkjan Honing, The MIT Press Reader

ComputingMarch 1, 2022

The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud

The cloud is not only material but also an ecological force

Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, The MIT Press Reader