Nautilus is a different kind of science magazine. We are science, philosophy, and culture connected, offering a new perspective on human uniqueness and our universe—all beautifully illustrated. Each month, we explore a single topic from various scientific disciplines, pairing award-winning journalists with illustrators to create features that are unlike any other science journalism—fascinating, inspired, and innovative. Nautilus publishes online and print long-form features, as well as a blog, Facts So Romantic, and a news service, Three Sentence Science. Beautiful, intriguing, and full of wonder—Nautilus is what science journalism should be.
“Holy sh*t, that can’t be right!” Hill recalls thinking. “Then I thought, no, this could actually be real. It started to dawn on me, this could be something really big.”
Any trainer with good horse sense could have told you that Trading Leather was something special before he raced from the pack, overtook…
A look at a 19th-century diet fad (that came back in the 21st) from our friends at Narratively: https://narratively.com/the-portly-victorian-undertaker-who-launched-the-worlds-first-low-carb-craze/
William Banting tried every 19th century weight-loss fad, from caustic laxatives to vapor shampoos. Polite society was shocked when he unveiled the method that finally worked.
"When it came to romantic love, respondents were less likely to consider a scientific explanation."
Last November Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of twin babies whose germline he claimed to have altered to reduce…
"Most people don’t like to think of themselves as just another mammal among many."
Last November Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of twin babies whose germline he claimed to have altered to reduce…
"Trouble is, relying on beauty as a guide to new laws of nature is not working."
The biggest news in particle physics is no news. In March, one of the most important conferences in the field, Rencontres de Moriond,…
"The line between pleasure and fear is thin, and sometimes you can place yourself right on it."
We reached Thank God Ledge on the Regular Northwest Face, of Yosemite’s iconic Half Dome climb, by mid-afternoon. This 40-foot horizontal…
"Desire and dread are deeply intertwined."
We reached Thank God Ledge on the Regular Northwest Face, of Yosemite’s iconic Half Dome climb, by mid-afternoon. This 40-foot horizontal…
"It’s funny how physics, like any field, has a small number of hot-button issues that people get very emotional about."
In his book Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, Max Tegmark writes that “time is not an illusion,…
"It’s like the ending of Life of Brian, where they say, 'You come from nothing, you’re going back to nothing. What have you lost?' "
In his book Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, Max Tegmark writes that “time is not an illusion,…
"Phantom jams are not the fault of individual drivers, but result instead from the collective behavior of all drivers on the road."
Few experiences on the road are more perplexing than phantom traffic jams. Most of us have experienced one: The vehicle ahead of you…
"Corinne had always been told the best way to find something you’ve misplaced is to retrace your steps. But how would one begin to do that with a person?"
Before Corrine’s husband abandoned her in Berlin, he liked to say that her name reminded him of the word “corrupt.” But ending…
A look at how video games can make the real world better, from our friends at Narratively.
How the future of building might very well emerge through Minecraft and other popular gaming platforms.
"The character of the traffic changes dramatically while individual drivers don’t change their driving behavior
at all."
Few experiences on the road are more perplexing than phantom traffic jams. Most of us have experienced one: The vehicle ahead of you…
"It soon becomes clear that there were no obstacles on the road, and apparently no cause for the slowdown."
Few experiences on the road are more perplexing than phantom traffic jams. Most of us have experienced one: The vehicle ahead of you…
"Drug dealers care about their online brand and reputation and customer satisfaction as much as Airbnb hosts or eBay sellers."
Trust used to be a very personal thing: You went on the recommendations of your friends or friends of friends. By finding ways to…
"Fluid researchers have struggled to understand just what is going on at the transition to turbulence."
The water is always running in Björn Hof’s laboratory. Like a Zen water fountain, it gently flows over the top of a reservoir into…
"The critical Reynolds number for flow through a pipe was quite possibly the worst-known constant of nature."
The water is always running in Björn Hof’s laboratory. Like a Zen water fountain, it gently flows over the top of a reservoir into…
"Trouble is, relying on beauty as a guide to new laws of nature is not working."
The biggest news in particle physics is no news. In March, one of the most important conferences in the field, Rencontres de Moriond,…
"Physicists must, first and foremost, learn from their failed predictions. So far, they have not."
The biggest news in particle physics is no news. In March, one of the most important conferences in the field, Rencontres de Moriond,…
"On the new planet, we would throw away our pelts forever and bask in uranium heat."
What on earth was mine? Our underground domicile’s concrete walls mapped with veins of mold and ice, the drip-drip-drip of dirty…
"I couldn’t see a future that didn’t involve me and Vee dying out here, either from starvation or from our lungs filling up, the sickness blooming in our cells."
What on earth was mine? Our underground domicile’s concrete walls mapped with veins of mold and ice, the drip-drip-drip of dirty…
A look at an athletic new way to make art, from our friends at Narratively.
Armed with a smartphone, a maps app and an appetite for urban exploration, a driven middle school science teacher pioneers a quirky new form of digital art.
"Icy material tends to boil off, producing an exotic kind of weathering that rearranges the landscape without any wind or rain."
I have seen the future of space exploration, and it looks like a cue ball covered with brown scribbles. I am talking about Europa,…
"If an alien swims in Europa’s ocean and nobody is able to see it, is it really alive?"
I have seen the future of space exploration, and it looks like a cue ball covered with brown scribbles. I am talking about Europa,…
"As an ex-particle physicist, I understand the desire to have an encompassing theory for the structure of matter."
The biggest news in particle physics is no news. In March, one of the most important conferences in the field, Rencontres de Moriond,…
“It is in changing that things find repose,” says Heraclitus.
This essay is one of the five winners in the 2019 writing competition held by the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. “The…
"The entropy encodes our ignorance of which specific state the system is actually in."
This essay is one of the five winners in the 2019 writing competition held by the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. “The…
"Beyond confirming the existence of the black hole, EHT tells us that all its features of the hole match the predictions of Einstein’s general theory of relativity."
The great irony of black holes is that, in all the decades that we astrophysicists have talked about them, we never had any direct…
A fascinating look at how an amputee—and avid climber—created the most advanced prosthetic ever, from our friends at Narratively.
Hugh Herr barely survived a terrifying blizzard at just seventeen. Now he’s back climbing mountains—and has revolutionized the prosthetic industry, too.
"She’s anthropomorphizing a mech—a recruit’s mistake, one she should be past."
Count to five, Noemi decides. If she’s cracking up—if the terror of the past few minutes has scrambled her mind to the point where…
"How much of the dark mass within the stellar orbits can be directly associated with the radio source Sgr A*?"
This essay is one of the five winners in the 2019 writing competition held by the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. “The…
"Physicists must be cautious in relating the findings from these cultivated black holes to their natural-born cousins."
This essay is one of the five winners in the 2019 writing competition held by the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. “The…
"Much like the prisoners in Plato’s cave, we can see black holes by observing the shadows they cast."
FIRST LOOK: The Event Horizon Telescope measures wavelength in the millimeter regime, too long to be seen by eye, but ideally suited…
"The reason dogs make good pets is this innate behavior of finding somewhere to sit and wait for food to arrive."
What is a dog? Many people often think of dogs as kennel club creations. The purebred dog is man’s best friend, not the street dog.…
Was the Earth once totally covered in ice? How about twice?
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.Ancient rocks suggest that ice entirely covered our planet on at least two…
"Gravity presents many puzzles because it gives rise to “anti-thermodynamic” behavior."
As conscious beings, we are constantly aware of the relentless march of time. You can make an egg into an omelet, but you can’t…
"It is literally a matter of life and death, for we all march together in the same direction from birth to the grave."
As conscious beings, we are constantly aware of the relentless march of time. You can make an egg into an omelet, but you can’t…
“No one is ever truly alone anymore. Including you. Someone will always be here, or just over the horizon or behind that cloud, which is still close enough to keep an eye on you. You can be sure of that.”
My roots are in a hilltop village west of Matera, where rabbit and boar run riot in the fields. Figs, apricots, and pears hang in…
When coal mining has polluted the soil and water, how do you farm? An innovative new way to farm, and build a community, from our friends at Narratively.
Young people tend to talk about “getting out” of McDowell County, West Virginia. But one radical farmer is bringing life back to his struggling hometown.
"We now insist that Web pages load in a quarter of a second, when we had no problem with two seconds in 2009 and four seconds in 2006."
Not long ago I diagnosed myself with the recently identified condition of sidewalk rage. It’s most pronounced when it comes to a…
"Can we stave off the slowness rage and revive patience? We need to find a way to reset our internal timers and unwarp time."
Not long ago I diagnosed myself with the recently identified condition of sidewalk rage. It’s most pronounced when it comes to a…
"I had the view that dams were destructive and stupid, and should be removed wherever possible."
I am paddling through the silt of the Green River, the largest, most remote, and least developed tributary of the Colorado River,…
"The general public doesn’t know what the dams do. They’d be at the mercy of the rivers without them."
I am paddling through the silt of the Green River, the largest, most remote, and least developed tributary of the Colorado River,…
"No matter what rules we have, there will always be people who cheat."
You could say the job of the sports fan is not only to cheer but to jeer. Take the Rio Olympics. American sprinter Justin Gatlin,…
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Clean meat is anatomically identical to animal flesh—because that’s precisely what it is—but without any drugs, animal suffering, or the need for large expanses of land and water. So if we can create a delicious, juicy, sizzling burger that is a win-win across the board, why wouldn’t we embrace it as the future of food?
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In our latest "Ingenious" we spoke to the linguist Julie Sedivy about the power and limitations of language. In the following interview, Sedivy explains how language both enraptures and deceives. She explains why Donald Trump’s language shrinks the world into gross simplicities. Our discussion delves into what makes good fiction and bad writing. Throughout, in her words and insights, Sedivy reveals what makes her a true language expert. Watch the entire interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/47/consciousness/ingenious-julie-sedivy
Will a rat sink or swim? Your mental health may be riding on the answer. That story, plus ethical dealings with aliens, climate change, and a test to see if animals are self-aware. http://nautil.us
Consciousness is a hard problem because it is emergent, mixes software and hardware, and is dizzyingly self-referential. It’s harder still because, in a sense, it impossible to study directly. We can measure how some living (or even inanimate) thing interacts with the world. We can learn to recognize intelligence and reflexivity in that behavior. But how can we tell what it is like to be that thing? Christof Koch, one of today’s leading thinkers on consciousness, describes it as “physics from the inside.” It’s a different category of question than we’re used to, and one that has a growing set of intersections with other sciences. It is even a short distance from some common laments. Why don’t we understand each other, or even ourselves? This issue is full of discovery, re-discovery and argument by analogy. Because that’s a good place to start. Welcome to “Consciousness.” http://nautil.us
Do we all share a certain set of given emotions—anger, joy, sadness, envy? Lisa Feldman Barrett doesn't think so. The neuroscientist explains her theory of constructed emotion. Watch the full interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/46/balance/ingenious-lisa-feldman-barrett
Do you think you can read emotions like joy or anger in another person’s face and actions, because joy and anger are universal emotions and we all know what they look like? Well, if so, says neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, you are winging it, guessing at best. Emotions like happiness and despair are not baked into our brains, waiting to be triggered by experiences in the world. So what are emotions? In this month's Ingenious, we spoke to Barrett about her theory of "constructed emotion." Watch the full interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/46/balance/ingenious-lisa-feldman-barrett
When you look down from a high place, do you ever fight the urge to jump? That story, plus the first woman to attend MIT, the origin of emotions, New York City’s noise addiction, and why you should work less, all this week at Nautilus. http://nautil.us
If you want to find out who someone really is, give them power. That story, plus cooperative evolution, dark energy, extraordinary female scientists, and why storms make us happy, all this week on Nautilus. http://nautil.us
How close are we to a Grand Unified Theory of physics? Physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss brings us up to date. That story, plus a fifth force of nature, what art can teach us about physics, and whether immortality is realistic all this week on Nautilus.
How is pleasure related to fear? That story, plus how aging changes the genetic lottery, the multiverse as VR, and the thin line between genius and madman, all this week on Nautilus. http://nautil.us
A glacier’s mass balance is the difference between how much snow and ice it accumulates, and what it loses to melting. A negative mass balance will, given enough time, skew other balances. As less sunlight is reflected by the shrinking glacier’s bright ice, more is absorbed by the dark ocean, pushing temperatures up. Warmer temperatures increase the amount of human-produced carbon dioxide stored in the atmosphere, which speeds ocean acidification and the dissolving of deep-water carbon deposits. These deposits make oceans more alkaline, balancing out their acidification. Peel back one balance, and you find another. In this issue, each balance leans against the next: mental against physical, evolutionary against ecological, one infinity against another. The web of balances that make up our world is intricate, full of tiny stable points and unexpected transitions. That can make it inscrutable. But, as living participants, we can still tell when it is broken. This February saw over 3,000 record high temperatures across the United States, compared to 30-odd record lows, the most lopsided ratio in history. This January was 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century global average. Which brings to mind another balance—a moral one. Welcome to “Balance.” http://nautil.us
"What makes someone a pedophile or struggle with sexual impulses if not their brain? And, if the locus is in their brain, then what makes their responsibility any more or less than someone who has a tumor? A hundred years from now we may be able to talk about brain function in a deterministic way, even if there’s not such a clear obvious organic issue." Carl Erik Fisher weighs in on the complicated intersection of neuroscience and justice. Watch the full interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/45/power/ingenious-carl-erik-fisher
The idea of mindfulness has permeated our zeitgeist. We are exhorted to be "mindful" at every turn—mindful about work, mindful in our relationships, mindful in our diet. Is the concept all it's cracked up to be? The meditating psychologist Carl Erik Fisher weighs in. Watch the whole interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/45/power/ingenious-carl-erik-fisher
The reactions to Carl Fisher’s Nautilus essay, “Against Willpower,” ranged from the appreciative to the sorely defensive. Why should we be asked to give up the idea of willpower? Aren’t we just giving ourselves and others permission to fail? Is this a political idea in disguise? In this month's "Ingenious," we gave Fisher a chance to respond in depth, and explain some of the nuances of his relationship with "willpower." Watch the full interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/45/power/ingenious-carl-erik-fisher
A man in Ohio is about to break open the oldest quarantine in mathematics. That story, plus isolated scientists, addiction, and the dark side, all this week on Nautilus. http://nautil.us
This week at Nautilus, magnetic leaders, computer models of atheism, water wars, the Stanford Prison Experiment, all the single ladies, and more. http://nautil.us
"When you think back to your career what do you remember? You remember the headwinds you faced. You don’t remember all the tailwinds that were pushing you along." We spoke to our latest ingenious, Robert Frank, about the invisible role luck plays in all of our lives. Watch the entire interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/44/luck/ingenious-robert-h-frank
“To imagine that everybody does best by being purely selfish is a socially moronic posture to bring to the study of human behavior,” economist Robert Frank says. The American Dream needs a rewrite, he believes, and with it comes wider personal and social perspectives, ones that might guarantee a more equitable and just land. “If we acknowledge luck, the experimental evidence is really quite clear that we become much more inclined to pay forward for the common good, to contribute things that will benefit not just us but the community at large.” In our latest "Ingenious," we spoke to Frank about the invisible hand of luck in our lives and economy: http://nautil.us/issue/44/luck/ingenious-robert-h-frank
What is the moral boundary between using genetics to prevent disease, and using it to enhance ability? Siddhartha Mukherjee, the author of "The Gene: An Intimate History," weighs in. http://nautil.us/issue/43/heroes/ingenious-siddhartha-mukherjee
Watch out exclusive interview with Siddhartha Mukherjee, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "The Gene: An Intimate History," as he discusses the most profound effects that genetics will have on our culture as its technology rapidly advances.
We spoke to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Gene: An Intimate History," about the powerful role genetics is poised to play in the future of human culture and medicine. Watch the full interview on our website.
If there's a true hero of the ocean, it's Sylvia A. Earle, who has spent a lifetime passionately defending the life in the waters. As President Barack Obama said of her, "I am in awe of how much she has done for ocean conservation." Watch our video interview with her here: http://nautil.us/issue/43/heroes/voice-of-the-ocean-rp
New on Nautilus Cosmos: A video interview with Harvard astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger about a career spent looking for life among the stars. Watch the full interview here: http://cosmos.nautil.us/video/70/this-woman-knows-the-weather-forecast-on-other-planets
The year was 1962, and it seemed like cell biologist Leonard Hayflick had made a mistake. After all, for 60 years it had been known that human cells were immortal, capable of dividing forever if they were cultivated in the right medium under the right conditions. But some of Hayflick’s cells were not dividing. Maybe his sample had been contaminated, or there was a problem with the way he’d prepared the cells. A few weeks passed, however, and not only did his finding remain the same, but a pattern emerged: The cells would double around 50 times, then stop dividing. Today, we take it for granted that human cells multiply a finite number of times. They stop at the aptly-named Hayflick Limit, when their telomeres—the protective caps at the ends of our chromosomes—get too short. But at the time, the scientific community deemed Hayflick’s discoveries—that normal cells are mortal, that they have memory and an internal counting mechanism, that cancer cells are uniquely immortal—preposterous. It would take nearly a decade of criticism and skepticism before his ideas were accepted as fact. Today, as a storied expert in the field of aging, Hayflick is still dispelling misconceptions. This month, we spoke to him in our latest "Ingenious." Watch the complete interview here: http://nautil.us/issue/42/fakes/ingenious-leonard-hayflick
If you think you're unique for being lactose intolerant, well, think again. In fact, 2/3 of people develop lactose intolerance as adults—along with all other mammal species. So how and why did that other 1/3 develop? What is the evolutionary advantage of lactose tolerance? Follow human geneticist Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society, as he tracks down the biological and cultural history of humans' ability to digest lactose, in this fascinating video: http://nautil.us/issue/41/selection/why-most-of-us-shouldnt-drink-milk
Has tusklessness among Mozambique's elephants become a distinct genetic advantage? http://nautil.us/issue/41/selection/how-an-elephant-loses-its-tusks
Joyce Poole can tell you exactly why she loves elephants: They share many of our best characteristics, and avoid many of our worst. They are familiar, social, and intelligent, like us, but also mysterious and foreign—and, occasionally, terrifying. In our newest "Spark of Science," the elephant researcher tells us her story: http://nautil.us/issue/41/selection/spark-of-science-joyce-poole
Watch our mini documentary on the tuskless elephants of Gongorosa National Park. http://nautil.us/issue/41/selection/how-an-elephant-loses-its-tusks
Is the study of engineering in crisis? Richard K. Miller, the president of Olin College, weighs in. http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/ingenious-richard-k-miller
Imagine you were a violin student. In the first year, you would be asked to take a year-long course in the physics of vibrations of strings. In the second year, you’d take a year-long course in the theory of music. In the third year, you would take a course on orchestration. And in the fourth year, if you are still here, you would be given a real violin and asked to play a scale. Then you'd have a degree in music. As crazy as it may sound, this is the format of engineering education today. At Olin College, President Richard K. Miller is trying to change that. Watch our video interview with this month's "Ingenious." http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/ingenious-richard-k-miller
Freeman Dyson once told Lawrence Krauss that "“There’s no way we’re ever going to measure gravitons”—the supposed quantum particles underlying gravitational forces—“because there’s no terrestrial experiment that could ever measure a single graviton.” In consequence, “There’s no way that we’ll know whether gravity is a quantum theory.” On this point, the two preeminent scientists disagreed. http://go.nautil.us/gravitons
Watch the former physics pioneer Fotini Markopoulou explain her unorthodox approach to quantum gravity, one of the biggest questions in physics. http://nautil.us/issue/38/noise/this-physics-pioneer-walked-away-from-it-all
Is the importance of the Nobel Prize in science essentially overblown and overrated? The science historian Nathaniel Comfort weights in. http://go.nautil.us/nobel
We love athletes who break records, but are critical when they dope. Are we moral hypocrites? Two philosophers go head-to-head in a video debate, in our latest "Ingenious."
What is the key problem in quantum gravity? Fotini Markopoulou, the pioneer physicist turned tech entrepreneur, explains it to us. Watch the full, exclusive interview here: http://go.nautil.us/second_act
"Design is possibly the most ubiquitous thing that humans do. It’s a very human thing. We make things. We envision things. It’s about how we understand our lives, what we want from our lives." Watch our exclusive interview with the pioneer physicist turned tech entrepreneur, Fotini Markopoulou: http://go.nautil.us/second_act
"If you really want to press me on when I decided to become a physicist, I have an almost embarrassing story of walking through the wrong door." Watch the whole interview here: http://go.nautil.us/second_act
Quantum theory and general relativity don't play well together. Watch pioneer physicist Fotini Markpoloulou explain the disconnect in our exclusive interview.
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