The Culture Desk

Home of The Culturist, Big Ideas and other special collections. Kick back with long articles, best of the week, and entertainment guides galore.

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The New Yorker
Jojo Rabbit
“The Lighthouse” Is Salted with Madness
The New Yorker - Anthony Lane
Its monologues swaying between aria and rant, Robert Eggers’s whirlpool of a film is so crammed with oddities that it is hard to hold fast. Calling all fans of Virginia Woolf. If you go to see “The Lighthouse”
1 day ago
Health
The global soda tax experiment
knowablemagazine.org - By Greg Miller
An increasing number of cities and countries have begun taxing sugary beverages. But can raising the price of these drinks really make a dent in …
2 days ago
Bloomberg
News
China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears
Bloomberg
In a farm deep in the southern region of China lives a very big pig that’s as heavy as a polar bear. The 500 kilogram, or 1,102 pound, animal is part …
2 days ago
Disease
Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?
medium.com - Markham Heid
Writing in 1889, the Swiss pathologist Ernst Ziegler observed that “a brief and precise definition of inflammation is altogether impossible.” Even …
2 days ago
Big Ideas: All-Female Spacewalk Makes History and Brain-Computer Interface
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch made history today when they conducted the first all-female spacewalk to replace a failed power control unit. Plus, six teams of DARPA researchers are working on developing a technology that could potentially control drones with the brain waves of soldiers, and fatty tissue is found in the lungs of obese and overweight people for the first time.
1 day ago
The Atlantic
Eating
A Strange New Culprit Behind Eating Disorders
The Atlantic - Olga Khazan
Common infections such as strep throat might have a mysterious link to anorexia and bulimia. In 2007, Carlo Carandang, then an attending physician at a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, saw a most unusual
1 day ago
Existentialism
Deep Time, and the Precarious Future of Humanity
undark.org - Bryan Walsh
In the atomic age, extinction can strike in a blink. But natural risks like asteroid strikes require us to think about time on a different scale. I …
2 days ago
CNN
A new study says there could be a surprising consequence to losing weight later in life
CNN - By Katie Hunt, CNN
(CNN) — Being overweight is linked to many health problems, and shedding some pounds is often presented as the best way to avoid them, no matter your age. But it's not quite that simple, according to study
2 days ago
CNN
News
Steroid injections may lead to more long-term harm than previously thought, new study says
CNN - By Ryan Prior, CNN
(CNN) — Doctors and patients should beware if they're hoping to use steroid injections to relieve the pain associated with osteoarthritis. The shots may be doing more harm than good. In a new study published
2 days ago
Fast Company
Innovation
Another reason to get off your phone: The blue light might be making you age faster
Fast Company - Adele Peters
At least, that’s what happened to flies when they spent 12 hours a day under blue lights. We already know that staring at the blue light beaming from a smartphone or computer screen can make it harder
1 day ago
ExtremeTech
Science
Neanderthal, Denisovan DNA Found Near Autism Genes in Modern Humans
ExtremeTech - Joel Hruska
One of the most interesting questions of hominin evolution is exactly how much of our vanished cousins remains in us. Between 1-4 percent of the …
1 day ago
Engadget
Japan
Japan will help NASA build a space station near the Moon
Engadget - Mariella Moon
Back in September, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) revealed their intention to work together under the Artemis program. Now, it's official -- Japan will join NASA's quest to go Mars
1 day ago
The Telegraph
Travel on Trial: Racing through a winter wonderland on a snowmobile in Finnish Lapland
The Telegraph - By Penny Walker
When I was small, my mum used to create a miniature snow scene every December on our piano. She would scrunch up balls of newspaper and run sheets of cotton wool over the top. She’d then carefully place
1 day ago
Adults Are Getting More Food Allergies. Scientists Still Aren’t Sure Why
discovermagazine.com - Cody Cottier
All your life, you’ve delighted in the subtle, sweet taste of fresh shrimp. Until one day, when you bite into it and find yourself beset by itching …
2 days ago
Beta-amyloid and Tau: What Do These Proteins Have to do With Alzheimer’s?
discovermagazine.com - Amber Jorgenson
If you look at the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient, you’ll see clear and undeniable damage. Clusters of dead nerve cells. Hard plaques cemented …
2 days ago
Airbnb
These Are 2020's Hottest Travel Destinations, According to Airbnb
thrillist.com - Dustin Nelson
An unexpected trip can be the most exciting kind of vacation to take. As can a trip where circumstances, like a wedding, bring you somewhere you …
4 days ago
CNN
Franklin Expedition
10 best haunted house attractions across the US in 2019
CNN - By Forrest Brown, CNN
(CNN) — The real world seems scary enough these days. But if you're one of those folks who needs an extra exhilarating jolt of fear around Halloween, there are plenty of haunted house attractions across
1 day ago
WIRED
The Arctic
Can Tiny Glass Beads Keep Arctic Ice From Melting? Maaaybe
WIRED - Condé Nast
Arctic sea ice acts as a massive parasol for the planet, its white surface reflecting the sun’s rays back into space and keeping the air and ocean …
2 days ago
Popular Science
NASA
An experiment hinted at Martian life in the '70s. So why did we stop looking?
Popular Science - Charlie Wood
When the Viking landers touched down on the Martian surface at the height of the Watergate scandal, they kicked up two clouds of rusty soil and a debate that would continue for more than four decades.
3 days ago
National Geographic
Shoes
Your shoes are made of plastic. Here’s why.
National Geographic - Alejandra Borunda
Sports, sex, and fashion shaped modern footwear design—and left shoes filled with plastics. There may be solutions in sight. The shoe that changed everything, according to designer D’Wayne Edwards, was
1 day ago
NBC News
News
Scientists aim to make 3D map of entire world before climate change ruins it
NBC News - By Brandon Specktor, Live Science
Earth is changing faster than anyone can comprehend. Every day, more forests burn, more glaciers melt and more evidence of the world's ancient cultures slips away. Change of some kind is, of course, inevitable
4 days ago
NBC News
News
A vast heat wave is endangering sea life in the Pacific Ocean. Is this the wave of the future?
NBC News - By Denise Chow
The huge expanse of warm water is about six to seven times the size of Alaska. A vast region of unusually warm water has formed in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and scientists are worried that it could
3 days ago
NBC News
Algal Blooms
As the world warms, harmful algal blooms are on the rise
NBC News - By Tom Metcalfe
New study of large lakes around the world shows rising toll of algae overgrowth. Dangerous blooms of algae in freshwater lakes — like those that have caused environmental emergencies in Florida in recent
2 days ago
NBC News
Global Warming
September 2019 was the hottest ever in North America
NBC News - By Mindy Weisberger, Live Science
Temperatures across the continent were warmer than the 20th century average by 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Is it hot in here? Turns out, for much of the globe, September 2019 was indeed as hot as it felt.
2 days ago
NBC News
Tropical Cyclones
What is a bomb cyclone?
NBC News - By Jeremy Deaton
A “bomb cyclone” has descended on the Northeast, delivering intense rain and ferocious winds that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes across New York, Massachusetts and Maine. Storms of
1 day ago
Lonely Planet
Art
New York's first underground gallery lands in Chelsea
Lonely Planet - Maya Stanton
Any New Yorker who commutes by train already spends plenty of time underground, but with the introduction of the city’s first subterranean gallery, they could be logging even more hours below deck. In
October 8
The Atlantic
Physiology
It’s Possible to Inherit More DNA From One Parent Than the Other
The Atlantic - Sarah Zhang
23andMe’s 4-million-person database reveals how many people are living with undetected chromosomal anomalies. Before Natalie Nakles was born, before the egg from which she was conceived was even fully
October 10
The Atlantic
Science
Cows Need Friends to Be Happy
The Atlantic - Rebecca Giggs
A cow is a beast bred for uniformity. Whether black-and-white Holsteins or ginger-colored Jerseys, the marvel of the herd is that such unvaried selfsameness has been coaxed, over time, out of bovine diversity.
October 11
The Atlantic
CRISPR
The Yogurt Industry Has Been Using CRISPR for a Decade
The Atlantic - Nicola TwilleyCynthia GraberGastropod
Long before there were CRISPR babies, there was CRISPR dairy. You’ve probably heard the hype: CRISPR will revolutionize biotech, cure disease, resurrect extinct species, and even create new and (not so)
5 days ago
The Atlantic
Water
The Mystery of Moon Water
The Atlantic - Marina Koren
The lunar supply won’t be anything like the stuff on Earth, but NASA wants it anyway. The impact sent a plume of lunar material from the moon’s south pole flying out into space. For a few minutes, the
4 days ago

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