colin's July 2026 List

The long read: Our lovable yet unruly boxer Dusty forced me to wonder: if a dog has no morals, how do you teach it to be ‘good’?

Agriculture could pull carbon out of the air and into the soil — but it would mean a whole new way of thinking about how to tend the land.

And the beer that gave rise to civilizations, too.

Humans may have lungs rather than gills but we feel the primal tug of the tide. Consciously or otherwise, we know we’re really all wet.

The mirror, an object of ancient fascination, has become a powerful tool for scientists to explore how the brain interprets (and misinterprets) information.

Research suggesting certain species can learn, experience pain and form relationships has implications for our attitude to world’s most-eaten animal

Hormones? Surgery? The choices are fraught—and there are no easy answers.

Is the KFC Double Down really what the Founding Fathers wanted for us?

From chemical building blocks, scientists have created synthetic cells that have most of the hallmarks of life.

Thirty-five years ago Dallas—and the country—was gripped by the tragic story of John McClamrock, a high school football player paralyzed during a violent tackle. But after the newspapers moved on, another story was quietly unfolding, one of courage, perseverance, and a mother’s fierce love.

In 1978, Soviet geologists stumbled upon a family of five in the taiga. They had been cut off from almost all human contact since fleeing religious persecution in 1936

The evidence for needing eight hours of sleep a night is shakier than we might assume.

Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.

Scientists in Sweden made an unexpected discovery when they exposed the fish to the illegal drug as well as another substance.

The Kerrs were devoted to one another and to their faith. But when one of their own rejected modern medicine in the name of God, they faced a dire question: What if her children ever needed a doctor to save their lives?

The word is toyed with at an amused and dismissive arm’s length, until it is miles from where it began.

New research is upending what we thought about the consciousness of patients, leaving families with agonizing choices.

A week inside a grueling Muay Thai training program in Phuket.

What would happen if it actually works?

OR: why your brain needs a boxcutter