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PHILIP BALL | According to the old story, we once thought that all this other DNA was just “junk,” a term coined in this context in the 1970s. It was accumulated over the course of evolution, for example by viruses inserting their genetic material into ours, and it did nothing useful but just cluttered up our genome the way all our old detritus of a lifetime clutters up our attic.

Naturalism is not intrinsic to a rational scientific understanding. Now, why we think that, then, is partly because we've constructed false narratives about conflicts between science and religion,

PHILIP BALL | Conflicts can in fact be tremendously fertile, alerting us to areas where more work is needed . . .

PETER HARRISON | Unfortunately, the comforting narratives beloved by scientists fall well short of the standards of historical scholarship.

PHILIP BALL | I’d put money on quantum computing becoming commercially viable and useful way before fusion does...

ERIKA LORRAINE MILAM | Nobody disagreed on the data. But everybody disagreed on how to interpret the data. . .

ERIKA LORRAINE MILAM | There is a long tradition, of course, of writing for lay audiences about science...

ERIKA LORRAINE MILAM | In the last forty years, Jane Goodall has become a saint of modern environmentalism, an unwavering voice calling. . .

PHILIP BALL | There’s one thing that distinguishes living matter from nonliving matter, it is this notion of agency.

A profound but quiet transformation in biology is changing the way we think about life.

NICK SPENCER | The British have never felt a particularly pressing need formally to define science. . .Not so America.

VITTORIO HÖSLE | Where does the enthusiasm of the 18th century for the humanities come from?