In praise of astronauts
Commander Chris Hadfield's cover of Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded on the International Space Station, has made him the talk of an entire planet. Paul Sims salutes the good humour of…
Science & Technology
Why is the Sun hot?
Our local star is very inefficient, says Marcus Chown. And we should be grateful for that
Time to rethink physics?
In his new book the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin calls for a major shift in the discipline and a recognition that rather than a relative value or an effect of…
They didn’t come from outer space
We've been primed by popular culture to expect a close encounter at any moment, governments have made preparations and the tin-hat brigade say they're already here. But now ufology is…
Tech heretic
Jaron Lanier is a digital pioneer who has collaborated with Microsoft and Google. So why is he warning that technology is making us dependent and redundant? JP O’Malley logs on
What do you want from a rationalist community?
Our new online rationalist community has 2350 members, which is a great start. Now we have to decide how to develop it, what it stands for and what it should…
Book review: The Heretics by Will Storr
A new exploration of why people believe unprovable and outlandish things is enlivened by a healthy dose of scepticism towards scepticism, finds Andrew Mueller
What is at the end of the tunnel?
Do the thousands of reports of spiritual near death experiences prove the existence of the soul, as some psychologists claim? Dale DeBakcsy burrows into the science
Home sweet home
It’s not the biggest or the most spectacular, but our little galaxy suits Marcus Chown just fine
Facing the future: an interview with Jim Al-Khalili
Theoretical physicist and star science presenter Jim Al-Khalili has just become the President of the British Humanist Association. Caspar Melville finds out what we can expect from his tenure