By Jared Diamond Updated May 22, 2020 3:36 pm ET The Covid-19 pandemic is an almost unique phenomenon in world history. The only precedent for its rapid spread to every continent, killing people every

L OCKDOWN HAS delivered a nasty shock to academia, with universities around the world closing for the summer term, disrupting the plans of millions of students. Business schools are suffering along wi

Critic’s Notebook In Search of Time Lost and Newly Found Roy Lichtenstein's "Still Life with Clock and Roses," 1975. Credit... Estate of Roy Lichtenstein Almost as soon as it appeared, Covid-19 seeded

"That is not only not right; it is not even wrong" - Wolfgang Pauli A lot of really important technologies started out looking like expensive, impractical toys. It doesn’t work, isn’t useful, and the

The term ikigai is a succinct way to describe what gets you up in the morning – be it work, family or a well-loved hobby – much like a prosaic version of the French raison d'être. Our coverage during

How the Buddha Got His Face His image is so commonplace that you could believe it must always have existed — yet for six centuries after his death, he was never once depicted in human form. A headless

Phys Ed The 4-Second Workout Intense bursts of exercise throughout the day may have surprising metabolic benefits. Credit... iStock By April 29, 2020 Four seconds of high-intensity exertion repeated p

Editor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today , our daily newsletter. To receive it, register h

‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership The coronavirus pandemic is shaking bedrock assumptions about U.S. exceptionalism. This is perhaps the first global crisis in more than

The Interpreter What Will Our New Normal Feel Like? Hints Are Beginning to Emerge Fear of others may linger long after the pandemic is over. But so may a new sense of community. Alone at Paris’s City

I heard Scott Galloway say recently that COVID-19 was going to act like an accelerator to a number of big changes. The comment vibrated my center and reminded me of something Andrew Yang said in his b

A lot of people are waiting for the one, two, and three that need to happen to make everyone relax and return to normal. The idea is that once we get a SARS-COVID-2 vaccine, or treatment, or combinati

Learn to Argue Productively Arguments don’t have to be heated, explosive moments. As long as everyone’s in good faith, everyone can learn from one another. Arguments don’t have to be heated, explosive

The first thing you should know? The dates, as we know them, have nothing to do with safety. J. Kenji López-Alt explains. Credit... Jonathan Carlson By Jan. 24, 2023 Leer en español Have you been reac

Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau settled in semi-seclusion for nearly two years while working on his journals and on “Walden; or, Life in the Woods.” Credit... Cody O'Loughlin for The New York T

Could the Pandemic Wind Up Fixing What’s Broken About Work in America? Historically, major crises have tended to empower workers. The coronavirus is already changing things, for better and for worse.

When I took a job in New York City at the age of 44, I had work I loved, a growing family and a secret disappointment. I had always wanted to write a novel.

The Single Most Important Lesson From the 1918 Influenza Tell the truth. At its core, society is based on trust. March 17, 2020 St. Louis Red Cross Motor Corps workers and ambulances waiting to receiv

World Scientists say lack of alarm among young people could hinder the fight against the virus and endanger elders By Bojan Pancevski in Berlin, Stacy Meichtry in Paris and Xavier Fontdegloria in Barc

Welcome to Marriage During the Coronavirus Remember: Both of you are right. March 16, 2020 By Opinion Columnist Perhaps a week ago, I wandered downstairs, laptop in hand, to show my husband an extreme

Imagine this: You’re an 18 year old with just a high school degree. You immigrate to a new country that speaks a different language, and start work with some of the brightest engineers in the world. S

Almost 90% of people are biased against women, according to a new index that highlights the “shocking” extent of the global backlash towards gender equality. Despite progress in closing the equality g

If life is a game, how do you play it? The answer will have a huge impact on your choices, your satisfaction, and how you achieve success . *** James Carse, the Director of Religious Studies at New Yo

Eric Schmidt: I Used to Run Google. Silicon Valley Could Lose to China. We can’t win the technology wars without the federal government’s help. Feb. 27, 2020 Silicon Valley leaders may be putting too

Negotiating how much you make at your jobs is one of the most important things you’ll do in life. This structure applies to many salaried positions but usually not jobs that pay hourly. Unfortunately,

Published 21 February 2020 Share page About sharing Image source, Getty Images In a world first, scientists have discovered a new type of antibiotic using artificial intelligence (AI). It has been her

Published 15 February 2020 Share page About sharing Image source, Thinkstock By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, Seattle US researchers have warned that the availability of sex robots with artifici

China’s Doctors, Fighting the Coronavirus, Beg for Masks Confronting a viral epidemic with a scant supply of protective equipment, more than 1,700 Chinese medical workers have already been infected, a

KCXL, in Liberty, Mo., carries programming produced by Radio Sputnik. Credit... Barrett Emke for The New York Times Playing on Kansas City Radio: Russian Propaganda Radio Sputnik, a propaganda arm of

In 2014, Elliot Rodger went on a shooting and stabbing spree, killing six and injuring 14 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Rodger was a self-proclaimed “incel” (short for involuntary ce

The Urgent Questions Scientists Are Asking About Coronavirus Let’s start with what we don’t know. Feb. 10, 2020 A technician doing diagnostic testing for the new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, last week

Ivan101/Getty Images Editor’s note (2010): When the members of the class of 2010 entered business school, the economy was strong and their post-graduation ambitions could be limitless. Just a few week

On January 9, the World Health Organization notified the public of a flu-like outbreak in China : a cluster of pneumonia cases had been reported in Wuhan, possibly from vendors’ exposure to live anima

What is the essential quality that moves a leader from merely mediocre to truly exceptional? The answer, according to science, probably isn't what you expect. Forget confidence, decisiveness, or even

As Protests in South America Surged, So Did Russian Trolls on Twitter, U.S. Finds State Department analysts found that Russian-linked Twitter accounts sought to sow confusion in South American nations

Rich People Don’t Just Live Longer. They Also Get More Healthy Years. Wealthy men and women generally have eight to nine more years of “disability-free” life after age 50 than poor people do, accordin

Personal Health For Better Brain Health, Preserve Your Hearing Hearing loss is the largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding that of smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exerc

Everyone Knows Memory Fails as You Age. But Everyone Is Wrong. Even 20-year-olds forget the simplest things. Jan. 10, 2020 Credit... No Ideas By Dr. Levitin is a neuroscientist. I’m 62 years old as I

Credit... Illustration by Michael DeForge ‘Techlash’ Hits College Campuses Facebook, Google and other major tech firms were every student’s dream workplaces. Until they weren’t. Credit... Illustration

The hard truth is that most things in your life – good and bad – are your fault. The sooner you realize that, the better things will be. Here’s how to cultivate an active mindset and take control of y