Stories from the magazine
Alpha, Gamma, Aha!
A flash of insight might feel like a spontaneous, instantaneous revelation, but experts say they can see signs that something is brewing several seconds in advance. Neuroscientists John Kounios and Mark Beeman used electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic...
Kepler’s Cosmic Cup
There was a time when astrology and astronomy were not so scientifically, diametrically opposed. A time when German astronomer and mathematician, Johannes Kepler, wrote horoscopes for the royal court while also writing requests to the Duke for money to build a...
How A Taste For Pasta Begat Dudes (≈ Hipsters)
The mid-18th Century was what you might call 'peak Grand Tour', when the trend for young British men visiting the continent's most cosmopolitan cities and famous sites was at its height. These men returned home affected by the experience. Their style, their dress,...
Bureau Of Memories
Through the largest of Bethlem Hospital’s remaining apple orchards, over badger sets, and past a light pole on which kestrels are often seen perching, can be found a wood pile. This repository for the gardeners’ waste is what Sue Burbidge, craftswoman and Bethlem...
Who Do You Think You Are?
Australia has an unpleasant history when it comes to national identity, and trying to impose one. A white one. Like in 1901, when descendants of the ‘founders’ who claimed Australia as their own — despite it already being inhabited by Aboriginal and Torres Strait...
Of Multi-Generational Migration Fame
“The first time I ever saw them was in February of 1977. We were walking along a road and it was overcast and nothing was moving. Then all of a sudden the colour of the forest changed from green to grey and I realised I was looking at a wall of monarch butterflies. It...