ToK Essays Nov 2024

Publisher labels ‘bitch’ as offensive but some equality campaigners are not satisfied

There was a time when the labels and texts in museum shows were matter-of-fact explanations—the artist, title, date, medium, and then a few informative words from the curator. But as exhibitions ha…

A court case of the use of Arabic script on the local currency reveals deep cultural and religious divides.

What is life and how did it arise from non-life? Is it as simple as the random organization of complex chemicals on the early Earth? What are the pathways whereby chemicals turned into life? Is life inevitable? Or extremely rare? What’s remarkable is how little we know.

Russian cartographers mapped their homeland in detail—making these secret charts invaluable to the Nazis, the U.S. Army, and the CIA.

In "Artificial You," scientist Susan Schneider discusses the challenges and implications of conscious artificial intelligence.

What is the difference between a brother and a stranger? Distance and time. As both grow, what is familiar becomes less so. As they decrease, what is strange becomes familiar. These two maps neatly capture those two driving forces of human history – centrifugal and centripetal – via the rathe

White people are furious because the archbishop of Canterbury suggested that Jesus, a Middle Eastern man, shouldn't be portrayed as white.  Archbishop Justin Welby said on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme that he would be reviewing statues in Westminster Abbey and Canterbury cathedral in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.  Asked whether the "way the western church