It’s that hollowing-out, Riskin suggests, that gives the sciences their sinister shadow. Genetics was preceded by eugenics; Darwin is still dogged (correctly or otherwise) by social Darwinism. In either case, and so many others, it’s not that “science” was infiltrated by a political (or poetical) poison. Rather, the very idea that science could be separate from such concerns allowed interested parties to bend it to their will. Science without poetry lacks imagination, but notably, it also lacks a moral compass.

What made Lamarck’s science “radical” was not that it was evolutionary or even materialist but that it was dynamic. Lamarckian science was always on the move, less predictable (and thus less controllable) than the mechanical dreams of those driven by the need to be right. Think of the garden and the workshop: what each affords, what each makes possible. In the Sciences of the Garden, humans bend themselves to the world as they find it; they watch and wait. In the Sciences of the Workshop, they bend the world—or try to—to their ends. Often, something breaks—and something has.

Research.

A new study offers one of the clearest answers yet to the question of why stressful moments so often push people toward habits like drinking.

Petition.

The mathematics community is in turmoil as over 2,100 mathematicians from more than 75 countries have signed a petition calling for the relocation of the 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) from Philadelphia, United States. Launched by University of Toronto mathematicians Ila Varma and Tarik Aougab, the petition argues that the U.S. is no longer a safe or suitable host due to recent geopolitical tensions and domestic security issues. Signatories include more than 100 former ICM speakers and seven invited speakers for the 2026 event, underscoring the depth of discontent within the field.

This collective action marks one of the most significant protests in modern mathematical history, highlighting how global politics is infiltrating even the most abstract academic disciplines. The petition's rapid growth—from a few hundred to over 2,000 signatures in weeks—reflects long-simmering frustrations among international scholars who view the ICM as a symbol of unity and collaboration.

Study.

The study, published in PNAS, examined Wisconsin state testing records, archival information about when Wisconsin cities began to fluoridate their water, and data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has followed a random sample of 10,317 high school seniors from 1957 through 2026. Key findings include:

• There is no evidence supporting a connection between community water fluoridation and children’s IQ.
• There is also no evidence supporting a connection between community water fluoridation and cognitive functioning at various points later in life.
• Findings confirm evidence published in previous research which also used a national sample, but considered school achievement test scores instead of actual IQ scores.

Scientific fields often reach us in polished form. Molecular biology too, in hindsight, can appear as a triumphant story populated by visionary figures and decisive breakthroughs. But archival materials have a way of restoring the noise to the signal. They bring back uncertainty, disagreement, hesitation, and the small frictions by which knowledge actually moved. In this case, the friction is especially enjoyable because it occurs between two people who were both, in different senses, intellectual adventurers.

The new collection invites exactly this sort of encounter. It does not simply preserve “important scientists” as finished icons. It preserves their exchanges, their working papers, their half-settled ideas, and their collisions. For a researcher, that is a gift. For a general reader, it offers something even better: the chance to see science as a lived, social, sometimes faintly comic process. Reading these papers feels like watching molecular biology being argued into existence.

The performance, held at the OBA Theatre in Amsterdam in December, was described at the time as the "first of its kind".

It saw Breanna use an electroencephalogram (or EEG) headset, developed by Japanese tech firm Dentsu Lab in collaboration with data company NTT, to capture her brain activity and specific motor signals associated with imagining certain dance movements.

A brainwave interface translating these signals into computer instructions then allowed her to convey which of these movements she wanted her mixed-reality avatar to dance in real-time.

Study