Author: Bo Nacy

Hope your week went well. It might have changed your genetics.

When the cicadas of Brood II burst into open air—and into song—later this month, after living 17 years in darkness below ground, they will have one thing on their collective, eerily synchronized mind: sex. Though millions of humans inhabiting the mid-Atlantic states will soon hear the insects’ incredible racket, they’re probably unaware that what they’re […]

In each issue of Nautilus, we shine a spotlight on one “Ingenious” scientist whose work makes us reconsider our world and ourselves. The Ingenious for our first issue, “What Makes You So Special,” is Columbia University astrophysicist Caleb Scharf, who contributed an essay about our place in the universe and talked about his life and […]

Our insignificance, and significance, on a cosmic scale

Half a century of Siberian science, or why your furry best friend is really a developmentally stunted wolf.

The science of why 600 Facebook “friends” are an illusion, or why brand loyalty is a product of our own ego.

Illustrated insights on love, hate, identity, God, capitalism, and the rest of life by way of Herman Melville and found paper.

From Lucretius to Einstein by way of Shakespeare, or how a long-lost Roman poem gave rise to the Renaissance.

From designer Stefan G. Bucher and a roster of famous creators comes a delightful pocket-sized compendium of flowcharts and lists to help you find our creative mojo.

What Ira Glass has to do with atlas antagonism, or what plotting carved pumpkins reveals about place.