Big ideas from expert conversations

A forest river at dusk with small wooden trading posts and moored longships

History & Archaeology

The Vikings Couldn't Conquer the Forest, So They Built a Road

November 10, 2026 ~4 min read

Three men were brought before the court of a German emperor and asked the plainest question there is: who are you? They said they were Rus. They had come by way of the Rus lands, they explained, and had decided to head home by a shorter route. What happened to them nobody knows. It is the first time the name of the Rus appears in a written source, and it appears as an awkward moment at court.

A DNA double helix inside a steel diving bell sinking into deep water

Life & Evolution

The 10-Metre Squid No Human Saw, Until Cameras Went Down

November 9, 2026 ~4 min read

Giant squid beaks turned up in whale stomachs long before anyone filmed the animal. An oceanologist explains why people are missing from the deep sea.

A computer chip lying on a stack of old tied papers

Technology & AI

Teach an AI physics only up to 1925. Will it invent quantum theory?

November 8, 2026 ~4 min read

A physicist proposes a test: train an AI on physics only up to 1925 and see whether it invents quantum mechanics. If it can, it might find theories we can't guess.

A golden crown on a cushion in a farmhouse, a palace far off

Mind & Society

Why fairy-tale princes go home and princesses never do

November 7, 2026 ~3 min read

In fairy tales the hero finds his bride and brings her home; the heroine walks to her husband and stays. A folklorist reads the pattern as an old marriage custom.

A silver hammer pendant and a cross hanging together on one cord

History & Archaeology

The Viking who got baptised three times for the free shirts

November 6, 2026 ~5 min read

Vikings didn't burn their gods when they turned Christian. They demoted them to heroes of the past and carved Sigurd the dragon-slayer onto church walls.

A skull lantern on a table beside brass weights and gold coins

Mind & Society

The Stepmother Was Never Cruel for Nothing: A Marriage Map in a Tale

November 5, 2026 ~3 min read

Why does the stepmother torment the heroine? A folklorist's quick answer: she came from far away, and her own daughter had to marry too.

An open pocket watch with an empty face and moving hands

Space

A lottery has gears. Quantum chance has none

November 4, 2026 ~4 min read

A lottery drum has gears behind every draw. Quantum randomness has none, and physicist Alexey Semikhatov says that is hard to wrap your head around.

A huge gas bubble rising from the seabed with gold coins inside

Earth & Climate

A $65 trillion bill hides under the Arctic seabed

November 3, 2026 ~4 min read

A Nature paper priced one Arctic methane scenario at $65 trillion. Igor Semiletov explains why the shallow Siberian shelf is where it could start.

A branching neuron passing small sealed bubbles to a neighbouring neuron

Life & Evolution

The brain's second language: RNA mailed between neurons

November 2, 2026 ~3 min read

Besides electrical spikes, brain cells can wrap non-coding RNA in membrane bubbles and send it to neighbours, changing how their genes work. A biologist explains.

A small planet Earth inside a glass test tube wired to a huge server

Technology & AI

What if our world is where AI gets its missing training data?

November 1, 2026 ~3 min read

AI may use up all public human text by 2032. Sergey Markov offers a half-joke: maybe our world is a generator of synthetic training data for some model.

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