The Conversation

Wealthy elites giving out $500 solar-powered juice presses are the problem with modern virtue-signaling masquerading as philanthropy. Nathan Straus was far more beneficial.

A little over a week ago, artificial intelligence company OpenAI announced ten advances in mathematics and computer science made with their as-yet unreleased model Astra. The discoveries cover a wide range of mathematical fields, including geometry, cryptography and coding theory.

You can spend every day surrounded by other people and still feel lonely. You can also spend long periods alone without finding the experience distressing. That difference may help explain why loneliness affects health differently from social isolation.

AI love is on the rise. It can provide joy and comfort. It can dissipate loneliness. Can AI love you back?

Modern spiritualism began as a religious movement in the 19th century. It promised to bring the living and dead together in conversation, usually through a medium – a person who claimed an ability to directly contact the deceased.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit author illustrator got her start in science. Everything except astronomy. She had her limits.

Why have public displays of piano playing become so compelling? At railway stations, shopping centres and airports, an instrument usually associated with concert halls bursts into everyday life.

When a devastating heat wave, hurricane, flood or wildfire strikes, people often want to know: How much did human-caused climate change influence this event, if at all? For many years, scientists could answer that question only in general terms.

One of the greatest pains a human can endure is to have no friends. What if we could build machines that replicated the experience of friendship?

Wildfire smoke has been pouring across the U.S. border from fires in Canada again, turning skies an eerie shade of orange in several states in July 2026. In the West, smoke has also been spreading into communities in Colorado and neighboring states as more wildfires burn in hot, dry conditions.

Female farm managers are hidden in plain sight in ancient Roman texts, mentioned in laws, literature and grave inscriptions across five centuries.

Simonetta Vespucci is probably one of the most painted women of the Italian Renaissance. Sandro Botticelli is widely believed to have used her as his model for Venus, and she appears, transformed and idealised, across several of his most famous works. She died in 1476, aged just 23.