The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “science”

The Half-Life of Facts: Dissecting the Predictable Patterns of How Knowledge Grows
The Half-Life of Facts: Dissecting the Predictable Patterns of How Knowledge Grows

“No one learns something new and then holds it entirely independent of what they already know. We incorporate it into the little edifice of personal knowledge that we have been creating in our minds our entire lives.”

read article

Mind and Cosmos: Philosopher Thomas Nagel’s Brave Critique of Scientific Reductionism
Mind and Cosmos: Philosopher Thomas Nagel’s Brave Critique of Scientific Reductionism

How our hunger for definitive answers robs us of the intellectual humility necessary for understanding the universe and our place in it.

read article

David DeSteno on the Psychology of Compassion and Resilience
David DeSteno on the Psychology of Compassion and Resilience

How to use the intricate balance of altruism and self-interest to our collective advantage.

read article

Some of Today’s Hottest Scientific Mysteries, Illustrated by Some of Today’s Coolest Artists
Some of Today’s Hottest Scientific Mysteries, Illustrated by Some of Today’s Coolest Artists

A beautiful celebration of the unknown at the intersection of art and science.

read article

As We May Think: Vannevar Bush’s Prescient 1945 Vision for the Information Age, the Power of “Curation,” and the Need for Open-Access Science
As We May Think: Vannevar Bush’s Prescient 1945 Vision for the Information Age, the Power of “Curation,” and the Need for Open-Access Science

“There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record.”

read article

Scientists and Philosophers Answer Kids’ Most Pressing Questions About How the World Works
Scientists and Philosophers Answer Kids’ Most Pressing Questions About How the World Works

Why we fall in love, what we’re all made of, how dreams work, and more deceptively simple mysteries of living.

read article

The Science of Why We Blush, Animated
The Science of Why We Blush, Animated

What adrenaline-responsive blood vessels have to do with the social signaling of remorse.

read article

When Charles Darwin Hated Everybody
When Charles Darwin Hated Everybody

A necessary reminder that even geniuses have their despondent days.

read article

The Science of Lucid Dreaming and How to Learn to Control Your Dreams, Animated
The Science of Lucid Dreaming and How to Learn to Control Your Dreams, Animated

Trekking the continuum of sleep and wakefulness in a journey into metaconsciousness.

read article

How Bird Wings Work
How Bird Wings Work

Explaining “the masterpiece of nature, the perfectest venture imaginable” with computational fluid dynamics.

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)