Minecraft looks simple on the surface — but every abandoned structure, hostile mob, and strange dimension points to a massive hidden backstory. Scattered clues reveal a lost civilization of ancient ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Imagine a town with two widget merchants. Customers prefer cheaper widgets, so the merchants must compete to set the lowest price.

In 1980, Stephen Hawking gave his first lecture as Lucasian Professor at the University of Cambridge. The lecture was called "Is the end in sight for theoretical physics?" Forty-five years later, ...

Inoculation theory has everything to do with making a belief or attitude resistant to influence, and very little to do with vaccines. So, please, keep your tinfoil hats in the wardrobe. This social ...

Imagine a town with two widget merchants. Customers prefer cheaper widgets, so the merchants must compete to set the lowest price. Unhappy with their meager profits, they meet one night in a ...

Pregnancy has long been framed as an evolutionary tug-of-war. The fetus presses for resources, while the mother mounts defenses to limit invasive placentation. A new study in PNAS challenges that view ...

What if I told you that social media isn’t just a chaotic swirl of memes, trends, and endless scrolling, but a carefully orchestrated battlefield where every post, like, and share is part of a larger ...

Russell has a PhD in the history of medicine, violence, and colonialism. His research has explored topics including ethics, science governance, and medical involvement in violent contexts. Russell has ...

Games Split Fiction lead worries “AA games are taking over” after Clair Obscur's success: "You can't do GTA for $10 million" Co-op Games Peak's lead wants to keep its game "jam-like spirit" for future ...

Ever wonder how nodes are incentivized in a blockchain to ensure trust, consensus and cooperation in a system with no central authority? The answer lies in game theory, the mathematical study of ...

It's VidCon season and you know what that means... GTLive is live from Vidcon! Featuring MatPat, Stephanie, Tom, Lee, Santi, Amy, Ash and you! MatPat is having some fun with the new hosts and having ...

The burnt toast theory is a metaphor for life that helps people interpret minor inconveniences as having positive ripple effects or a “silver lining.” It’s related to the butterfly effect. While not a ...