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Twenty years ago, preparing to give a lecture at a conference meant embarking on a logistical expedition. My suitcase was packed not with clothes but with boxes of Kodachrome slides, each one labeled and numbered. Preparing a single slide could take hours. Photographs had to be scanned or re-photographed. Text had to be shot onto diazotype film. Then came the anxious wait for slide processing, hoping the lab didn’t scratch or miscut a frame. There was no margin for error and

The Australian Club  in Sydney was founded in 1838 as a private gentlemen’s club, located at 165 Macquarie Street in the center of Sydney, overlooking The Royal Botanical Gardens and Sydney Harbour. It is the oldest gentlemen’s club in the southern hemisphere. Early on, the Club  provided a space for Sydney’s elites to meet, dine, stay, and network. Merchants, lawyers, bankers, and those with social standing. 1838–1840:  After being founded in 1838, the Australian Club was f

For centuries, humans have drawn a sharp line between instinct  and consciousness . René Descartes, in the seventeenth century, argued that animals were mere automatons. Biological machines responding mechanically to stimuli. Only humans, he insisted, possessed souls capable of thought and language. That view, deeply embedded in Western philosophy, still echoes in the language of science today. When a dog feels pain, we often speak of responses to stimuli . When a human does,

He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. Albert Einstein Every so often something stops us in our tracks. A whale rises through the waves. A bird lifts into a cloudless sky. And for that moment, we are weightless. Our breath caught somewhere between disbelief and gratitude. That is awe . And the questions that follow. Why? How? What else might be true? That’s wonder . Together, they are the twin forces

It’s a quiet autumn evening. You’re watching TV when a shadow scuttles across the rug. A large house spider, Tegenaria domestica , on the...

It slips into our sentences almost unnoticed. “She was, like, exhausted.” “And I was, like, what just happened?” We hear it everywhere....

Sydney Harbour has long been defined by two icons. The curve of the Opera House sails and the steel arc of the Harbour Bridge. These are...

When painter Alex Katz  was asked, late in a career most artists would envy, if he still worries about new work failing, he laughed and...

If you’ve heard that dopamine is the brain’s feel-good molecule , you’ve only got the movie trailer, not the full film. Dopamine is less...

Street photography is the making of unstaged photographs of everyday life in public spaces , using observation and timing to reveal a...

In 1787–88 the First Fleet , eleven ships under Captain Arthur Phillip (two naval escorts, six convict transports, and three store...

Long before the Berlin Wall or the US–Mexico border fence, the British built a living barrier across the heart of India. A hedge so vast...

Giraffes didn’t evolve long necks just to reach high leaves – though that may play a role. The more compelling evolutionary explanation...

Ever seen this combo – !? – at the end of a sentence and wondered what it means? It’s called an interrobang  – a fascinating piece of...

If you’ve ever paused mid-sentence, wondering whether to use nonetheless or nevertheless , you’re not alone.   Both words seem...

Growing up in Australia, where “proper English" was prized and verbosity often mistaken for precision, I was slow to appreciate the...

Cassius  (the younger man pointing) and   Brutus  (the older man listening) from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar . In the winter of 1954,...

Saint Augustine , philosopher, theologian, and one of the towering intellects of the early Christian church, left behind many timeless...

As children, many of us watched a crow tilt its head or a raven glide overhead and wondered: What’s going on inside their minds?   For...

For years, the genetic mystery of orange cats has gone unsolved. While their personalities have long inspired memes, comic strips, and...