The bloodstained origins of the Italian Renaissance
Prolonged warfare between city states was conducted largely by mercenaries, whose accrued fortunes translated into social status through patronage of the arts
Petty, malicious and tremendous fun – the Facebook office drama
Sarah Wynn-Williams’s gleeful dissections of former colleagues’ foibles were met with furious denials and the threat of legal action – guaranteeing maximum publicity for her book
The latest Dragon Age game is unbearably right-on
Like all other forms of culture, video games offer a way to escape from, or reflect on, reality through fiction.…
Conspiracy theories are as old as witch hunts
To millions of people across America, Hillary Clinton sits atop a global network of satanic child-traffickers and is battling an…
Is now the most exciting point in human history?
Since today’s computers can process information beyond human capabilities, we are on a precipice never faced before, says Yuval Noah Harari, in another sweeping narrative
The dirty war of Sefton Delmer
Anything to break German morale was allowable in Delmer’s broadcasts from Wavendon Towers – which purported to come from a disgruntled character within Nazi Germany
What would life on Mars actually look like?
It would need more than 100 million people to make it viable for a start – living in airlocked, subterranean bases, producing food and oxygen in artificially-lit greenhouses
The bored teenagers who can disrupt the world
Scott Shapiro describes five major hacks – the most serious of which, the creation of the Mirai botnet, was the work of three young men hoping to make a few quick bucks
The descent of Mark Zuckerberg
Is this the beginning of the end for Mark Zuckerberg?
What is the metaverse, actually?
Big tech might tell us it’s what’s coming next but as yet there’s no real use for it, says James Ball
Will there ever be a reliable lie detector?
For as long as we have been human we have looked for some way of telling when we are being…
Russia had nothing to do with Brexit
In light of Russia’s abhorrent invasion of Ukraine, certain corners of the internet have become obsessed – yet again – with Russia’s supposed…
What motivates Peter Thiel apart from the desire for more wealth?
If you’ve only heard one thing about Peter Thiel (and many have heard nothing at all) it is that he…
TikTok intifada: the role of new media in old conflicts
The TikTokisation of global politics
Life on Earth is too tame for eccentric American billionaires
For many of us, Elon Musk is a hard man to like. He’s the richest man in the world (or…
Cashing in on Covid: the traders who thrive on a crisis
When we think of those lurching moments last spring when it became clear that much of the world, not just…
Facebook has called the Australian media’s bluff
In 2021, it’s not uncommon to hope that everyone involved in an argument can lose, or to suspect that pretty…
The problem with ‘immunity passports’
The many dangers of ‘immunity passports’
Were there any links between Cambridge Analytica, Russia and Brexit?
In July 2018, Elizabeth Denham – the woman in charge of enforcing the UK’s laws on data protection – appeared…
Unplugging Huawei will be harder than it looks
There is nothing some Conservatives like talking about more than Huawei. Each new development in global politics is a new…
How did the UK’s pandemic preparations go so wrong?
How was Britain so ill-prepared for a pandemic?
The UK isn't taking the risk of contact tracing fraud seriously
Experts have a get-out clause of which politicians can only dream when they are speaking from the podium at press briefings.…
The R-number – and the danger of false certainty
Not much about Boris Johnson’s Sunday night television address was clear. The one definite new measure – one which will…
Can we trust Neil Ferguson’s computer code?
Newspapers aren’t the place to debate expert advice on a crisis. Advisors advise, ministers decide. We should keep politics out…
The price of oil just hit $0 a barrel. What’s going on?
If you’ve ever wanted to own a barrel of oil, today might be your lucky day – for the first…
