Lean Into Failure

The easiest way to avoid blowing up a rocket is to leave it on the launch pad, but that’s not what rockets are for.

Nuclear-Powered Pacemakers

Even though it might technically be safe to walk around with trace amounts of plutonium powering your heart, this is still a terrible idea, and there are two groups that really, really hated it.

Know Your Audience

According to one park ranger, "there is a considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."

More Human

Today, we're on the cusp what may become one of the most significant technologies we've ever created: artificial intelligence.

How to Make Trees Sing

This decision – between raising the floor to limit the worst consequences, in exchange for lowering the ceiling of best possible outcomes – shows up everywhere in our lives.

Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth

When the Challenger space shuttle exploded in 1986, killing all seven people on board, we turned to language, because in that moment, there was nothing else to do.

The Scientific Method

If you could meet the first humans and share just one modern idea with them, which would you choose?

Mise en Place

French novelist Gustave Flaubert said, "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."

Becoming Active Allies

If you are standing on the edge of a fight, silently supporting the recipient of bullying, you are not a passive ally – you're a passive bystander.