Philosophy
essay
Biology
Building embryos
For 3,000 years, humans have struggled to understand the embryo. Now there is a revolution underway
John Wallingford
essay
Medicine
Last hours of an organ donor
In the liminal time when the brain is dead but organs are kept alive, there is an urgent tenderness to medical care
Ronald W Dworkin
essay
Bioethics
The dangers of AI farming
AI could lead to new ways for people to abuse animals for financial gain. That’s why we need strong ethical guidelines
Virginie Simoneau-Gilbert & Jonathan Birch
essay
History of science
The rights of the dead
From the Irish Giant to the Ancient One, is it ever ethical for scientists and museums to study bodies without permission?
Anita Guerrini
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
Psychosis and psychedelics
In the 1960s, psychedelic research was driven underground. Now it’s re-emerging – with lessons for the study of psychosis
Phoebe Friesen
essay
Medicine
Physician, invade thyself
Eager for medical breakthroughs, some doctors take enormous risks experimenting on themselves. Should we celebrate them?
Tom Doyle
essay
Bioethics
Reproductive technologies
Infertility treatments aim to improve women’s lives. But they risk tying womanhood to the toxic expectation of motherhood
Gulzaar Barn
video
Space exploration
Would children born beyond Earth ever be able to return to humanity’s home planet?
5 minutes
essay
Animals and humans
The free dogs of India
These canines have independent, peaceful, happy lives without a pet’s constraints. Why are they being persecuted and culled?
Krithika Srinivasan & Chris Pearson
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Animal, vegetable, mineral
Cruel and unscientific, the ‘vegetative state’ diagnosis stems from a hierarchical and bigoted view of all living things
Ben Platts-Mills
essay
Animals and humans
Where went the wolf?
The very attributes that make small dogs cute and popular are slowly strangling their ability to function as real animals
Jessica Pierce
essay
Bioethics
Selected before birth
Embryo risk screening could lower the odds of illnesses ranging from depression to diabetes. Can it be ethically done?
Todd Lencz & Shai Carmi
video
Ethics
How many monkeys is it worth sacrificing to save a human life?
6 minutes
essay
Animals and humans
Happy the person
She has deep emotions, complex social needs and a large, elephant brain. Her legal personhood should be recognised too
Lori Marino
essay
Animals and humans
Semiotics of dogs
In all its baroque and sometimes cruelly overbred forms, the dog is a paramount symbol of both human hopes and foibles
Katrina Gulliver
essay
Animals and humans
Freefall into darkness
Scientists study animals to illuminate human psychology. So why are we blind to the mental lives of our caged subjects?
Garet Lahvis
essay
Animals and humans
Against human exceptionalism
In a tight spot, you’d probably intuit that a human life outweighs an animal’s. There are good arguments why that’s wrong
Jeff Sebo
video
Family life
A son of China’s former one-child policy remembers the sibling he never had
8 minutes
essay
Bioethics
We are all frail
We should be able to acknowledge that disabilities can cause pain and suffering without disabled people feeling dehumanised
Tom Shakespeare
essay
Animals and humans
The posthuman dog
If humans were to disappear from the face of the Earth, what might dogs become? And would they be better off without us?
Jessica Pierce
essay
Oceans and water
Defend the deep
Instead of letting waves of exploitation sweep through the deep ocean, we could choose to protect this vast living realm
Helen Scales
essay
Bioethics
Don’t farm bugs
Insect farming bakes, boils and shreds animals by the trillion. It’s immoral, risky and won’t resolve the climate crisis
Jeff Sebo & Jason Schukraft
video
Biology
When medicine offers no relief, a biohacker begins a radical self-experiment
12 minutes
essay
Space exploration
Do we send the goo?
The ability to stir new life into being, all across the Universe, compels us to ask why life matters in the first place
Betül Kaçar