Author: Terrence Cons

The world is your casino. But bettors beware—the house always wins.

Is there something special about humanity’s method of understanding the world around us? If there are other intelligent beings in the world, would their knowledge be important in the same way? David Deutsch‘s research suggests an affirmative answer to both questions. Deutsch is a physicist at the University of Oxford, a fellow of the Royal […]

We’re used to the idea that some among us are colorblind, perceiving the world differently because of a quirk in their genetics. And it’s well-known that teenagers and young adults can hear high-pitched sounds that their elders cannot, an ability that’s been exploited by manufacturers of The Mosquito, an anti-loitering device that annoys youth into leaving. […]

When Copernicus told us that Earth is not the center of the universe, we collectively cried, “Oh, no!,” and have spent the past 470 years fanning ourselves silly, trying to recover from the blow to our species’ ego. So goes the mythology of the Copernican Revolution. But it’s not true. The center of the universe […]

A metaphor for science.

From armadillos to zebras, or what championship chickens have to do with a giant octopus.

A peek inside the creative process of modern animation’s greatest gems, from sketchbook to screen.

An irreverent, artful antidote to GPS appification, or what the NYC subway has to do with tsunamis.

From Ancient Greece to quantum mechanics, or what a Chinese room and a cat have to do with infinity.

What the second law of thermodynamics has to do with Saint Augustine, landscape art, and graphic novels.