MathematicsSeptember 27, 2026
The secret Cold War history of Tetris
The beloved game arose out of the opposing forces of the U.S. and the Soviet Union
Stories by The MIT Press Reader
AnimalsSeptember 26, 2026
How a horse flu crisis fueled animals rights advocacy in the U.S.
In 1872, New York’s devastating epizootic gave the ASPCA’s young founder a powerful moral argument for animal protection
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
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?
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
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
ComputingMarch 1, 2022
The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud
The cloud is not only material but also an ecological force