The Fermi paradox asks us where all the aliens are if the cosmos should be filled with them. The Dark Forest theory says we should pray we never find them.

The West has been doing well scientifically for a few hundred years now, but it took almost a thousand years for it to catch up to the Middle East. Here are ten of the biggest discoveries the Islamic world got first.

If the universe is teeming with life, where is everybody? If this physicist is correct, they have one foot in their graves.

Who needs a hole in the head? As it turns out, lots of people in ancient hospitals did. Why was one society so good at keeping people alive after it opened up their skulls?

How much money does it take to be happy? How much is too much? These philosophers have a lot to say about money and how it relates to the good life.

We often support ideas without knowing quite why. John Stuart Mill reminds us why capitalism can be great for us and why we should be wary of state power.

Was Oscar Wilde—witty author, gay rights icon, and lover of champagne and material beauty—a radical socialist?