Science / Tech - Quillette

A deflated yellow smiley face balloon on a dirty road.

Selling Happiness Through Illusions

The caring industry’s wellness and positivity products cannot provide self-esteem to those who do not already have it.

Ronald W. Dworkin

30 Aug 2024 · 15 min read

Algeria's Imane Khelif (in red) and Italy's Angela Carini during their women's 66kg preliminaries round

XY Athletes in Women’s Olympic Boxing: The Paris 2024 Controversy Explained

The historical, political, and medical context of the Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting cases.

Doriane Lambelet Coleman

3 Aug 2024 · 13 min read

Nick Bostrom in glasses speaking on stage. Neon purple futuristic background.

‘Superintelligence,’ Ten Years On

AI catastrophe is easy to imagine, but a lot has to go consistently and infallibly wrong for the doom theory to pan out.

Sean Welsh

2 Jul 2024 · 12 min read

Colourful plastic bottle tops in a recycling bin.

Recycling Plastic Is a Dangerous Waste of Time

The recycling industry—and the world at large—has yet to fully reckon with a bombshell study that dropped last year.

Frank Celia

17 Jun 2024 · 17 min read

An abstract photo of a woman looking through an astronaut helmet with a reflection of planets in the glass.

The Future of the Space Industry

The privatisation of space travel is cutting the cost of rocket launches and powering innovation.

Rainer Zitelmann

26 May 2024 · 12 min read

An AI generated image of a man staring face to face with a robot.

ChatGPT’s Moral Compass

We hear much talk of “aligning AI with human values” but relatively little delineation of what these values are.

Sean Welsh

20 May 2024 · 15 min read

Doctors, nurses, and other health care workers participate in a "White Coats for Black Lives" ceremony.

From Caregivers to Social Reformers

Directing physicians to treat their patients as racial statistics rather than an individuals is a grievous misdirection of their skills.

Ronald A. Lindsay

13 May 2024 · 12 min read

Crown of a nuclear bomb explosion over Mururoa atoll, French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean

The End of the World as We Know It

Far from enhancing American national security, or the security of the world, nuclear weapons will lead us to the edge of destruction.

Lawrence M. Krauss

6 May 2024 · 7 min read

One Year Since the AI Pause Petition

Just because we can imagine something terrible happening, that does not mean it will happen.

Mathias Sundin

22 Mar 2024 · 10 min read

Vaccine Hesitancy and the Covid Pandemic

Overselling Covid vaccines during the pandemic has backfired and played into the hands of the anti-vaccine movement.

Roger Bate

15 Mar 2024 · 10 min read

Identity Satiation

Some rarely discussed phenomena can shed light on why the focus on identity and introspection has coincided with a rise of mental health issues, including identity disorders.

Brandon McMurtrie

8 Mar 2024 · 6 min read

On Biology and Politics

Why the Left must take human evolution seriously.

Patrick Whittle

18 Feb 2024 · 22 min read

Getting Better All the Time

Hannah Ritchie’s new book offers reasons to be cheerful about the present and the future.

Sean Welsh

15 Feb 2024 · 12 min read

Is the CRISPR Revolution Finally Coming to Europe?

The European Parliament has at last voted to make it easier to grow and consume genetically engineered food. But the road ahead remains bumpy.

Steven E. Cerier / Jon Entine

12 Feb 2024 · 13 min read

Is Life Coaching Just Modern Sophistry?

The popularity of a trend does not necessarily make it ethical.

Andrew White

8 Feb 2024 · 13 min read