Opinion

“The gates of hell, the end of space and time.” That was how black holes were described at the press conference in Brussels where the first ever photograph of one was revealed to an excited audience. And this black hole, a super-massive object at the center of the galaxy Messier …

For 37 years, Axel Scheffler, the German-born illustrator of The Gruffalo, has made his home and his career in Britain. His contribution to the lives of millions of our children has been simply immense. If we leave Europe, his hitherto guaranteed right to call the UK his home is under …

There’s a fine line between being hailed as a visionary and being denounced as a crank, as Iraq-born physicist Jim Al-Khalili is only too aware. Seated in his office at the University of Surrey in the U.K. on a sunny day, he recalls a less tranquil time in his career, …

Having previously explored such mysteries as who invented writing and how sounds became shapes, it’s time to turn to something much less mysterious, a seemingly mundane yet enormously influential tool of human communication: the humble pencil. “Take a pencil to write with on airplanes. Pens leak,” states the first of …

I first heard about Momo. Someone had screenshotted a Facebook post about a creepy puppet that supposedly appeared in unsuspecting children’s phone messages and spliced into YouTube videos, dispensing advice on self-harm and violent acts. I reacted with suspicion: this would hardly be the first time that something on Facebook …

The last fighters are holding out, just. The leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is still alive but hiding somewhere in the desert. We have already had one “final defeat” of Islamic State. This came 18 months ago when the organization’s capital, Raqqa, fell. Once, it held territory the size of the …

Mathematics is the language of science and has enabled mankind to make extraordinary technological advances. There is no question that the logic and order that underpins mathematics, has served us in describing the patterns and structure we find in nature. The successes that have been achieved, from the mathematics of …

Liberalism’s remarkable adaptability explains its bewildering variety. It is perhaps the very political condition of modernity. What is liberalism? The term is deployed frequently in political discussion but, confusingly, can refer to a great range of ideological positions. So, for example, one type of liberal (a “social” or “leftwing” liberal) …

The shale boom has created a world awash with crude, putting a lid on prices and markedly reducing U.S. dependence on imported energy. But there’s a growing problem: America is producing the wrong kind of oil. Texas and other shale-rich states are spewing a gusher of high-quality crude — light-sweet …

The shutdown is finally ending. President Donald Trump went on television Friday afternoon and announced he will allow the government to reopen for three weeks. Although picking winners and losers in politics is always tricky, there is a clear-cut case to be made that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just completed …

One only has to look at past events to know that nation-state hacking has become an increasing concern for governments worldwide. In 2018, hackers from China targeted universities and the Lowy Institute in Australia, to steal intellectual property and information. In 2015, Ukraine’s power grid was compromised by the Black …

US President Donald Trump seems to be on a steady course, and that is instability. Because it is the only one or two more faces still remain in their positions from the group that entered the White House and taken the first steps in the presidency. According to Reuters, on …