The rarity of phosphorus makes it the single most limiting factor for the growth of biomass on Earth. It is, as Isaac Asimov puts it, ‘life’s bottleneck’ – the toll which must be paid by all matter ...

Adam Phillips is a psychoanalyst who worked for some years as an NHS child psychotherapist. His books include Winnicott, On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored, Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived ...

Under the policy of Staatsräson, which has made the defence of Israel a central pillar of the German state, the ...

In the West Papuan regency of Merauke, close to the border with Papua New Guinea, Indonesia is rapidly clearing land ...

I saw ​ the end of it then, I mean the end of it as it was, as my mother told the story of my father’s sudden deafness. The ...

In 2013, a group of French and Egyptian archaeologists discovered of cache of papyri as old as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Some of the texts were written by people who had worked on the pyramids: a ...

is a wheel where they turn to tell him sorrow is gain. The way he sets his spine to the ironwork is a drag-line of grief: ...

Our pioneering podcast subscription: two contributors explore an area of literature through a selection of key works, providing an introductory grounding like no other. Listen to extracts from each ...

The LRB is Europe’s leading magazine of books and ideas. Published twice a month, it provides a space for some of ...

Libraries were all the rage in Renaissance Europe, and no wonder. Theatres of knowledge, grandly decorated and proudly displayed, they hosted dramas of many kinds. Learned men used them for lively ...

Nearly all these portrayals show Alexander in a positive light, but the story told by modern historians and even some ancient ones is more complex. Alexander came to the throne of Macedon in 336 bc, ...

Bee Wilson is the author of The Way We Eat Now, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat and The Secret of Cooking. The Heart-Shaped Tin was published in May.