Evolution Led Humans into a Trap

What’s popular this week in Nautilus. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( EDITORS' CHOICE Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Sunday, read the latest and most popular stories from Nautilus [READ NAUTILUS]( [PHYSICS]( [The Overlooked Experiment That Revealed the Quantum World]( A century ago, the Stern-Gerlach experiment established the truth of quantum mechanics. Now it could build a bridge between the two pillars of modern physics. BY ZACK SAVITSKY Before Erwin Schrödinger’s cat was simultaneously dead and alive, and before point-like electrons washed like waves through thin slits, a somewhat lesser-known experiment lifted the veil on the bewildering beauty of the quantum world. [Continue reading →]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... Which aspects of human nature make addressing climate change hard, and which offer hope? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by [“Evolution Led Humans into a Trap.”]() Top Answers to Our Previous Question (On Your Most Awe-Inducing Experience) - The most awe-inspiring experience I’ve had is to see the redwoods in Muir Woods. I have been there a few times and each time I feel like I am inside the most beautiful cathedral in the world. It always gives me goosebumps. Touches my senses with the clean redwood smell, the moist ground, the mistiness of the air, the sheer size and age of the trees. I wish I lived closer and could have this spiritual experience more often. – Eileen T. - Giving birth, and standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon. – Hollis S. - The first time I heard an octet perform Haydn’s The Creation, 40 years ago, the beauty of the piece astonished me. I eventually lost all sense of my own body, my thoughts. When the piece was over, I was a changed person. I was unable to speak for hours. It took me several days to recover from the music’s stunning beauty. I later understood that I had dissociated, in psychological terms, as a result of the music’s splendor. – Haydn M. Popular This Week [EVOLUTION]( [What You Don’t Know About Sperm]( A remarkable tale of evolution. BY DAVID P. BARASH [Continue reading →]( PSYCHOLOGY [Emotional Intelligence Needs a Rewrite]( Think you can read people’s emotions? Think again. BY LISA FELDMAN BARRETT [Continue reading →]( The latest from Nautilus [EVOLUTION]( [Evolution Led Humans into a Trap]( The cultural forces that fueled our success now threaten to end it. BY KRISTEN FRENCH [Continue reading →]( ASTRONOMY [Jupiter’s Io Gets a Close-Up]( A new image of our solar system’s most volcanic body. BY KATHERINE HARMON COURAGE [Continue reading →]( [“Building the experiment amounted to ‘Sisyphus-like labor.’”]( [Zack Savitsky writes about the possible role cheap cigar smoke unintentionally played in revealing the quantum world.]( From The Porthole—short sharp looks at science ZOOLOGY [Night Swimming]( Specialized underwater photographers reveal secrets of the sea’s flamboyant babies. BY SARAH GILMAN Just as many staid adults were once rebellious teenagers in interesting clothing, many marine fish species enter life as flamboyant larvae that bear little resemblance to their mature forms. [Continue reading→]( Your free story this Sunday! [NEUROSCIENCE]( [The Fine Line Between Life and Not Life]( If the brain can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality, what can? BY PATRICK HOUSE Where does a consciousness end and the rest of the world begin? [Continue reading for free→]( EXCLUSIVE MEMBER CONTENT | [Explore Memberships→]( [Adventure Is Calling]( A call to adventure. A wise mentor. A transformational quest. These are all elements of the iconic “hero’s journey”—a narrative trope so pervasive, that our brains seem hardwired to respond to it. In Nautilus Issue 53, writer Adam Piore takes us on a quest of our own that explores the transformative power of seeing your life as a hero’s journey. Heed the call to adventure and [subscribe to Nautilus today](. [JOIN NOW]( P.S. The inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla died on this day in 1943. Toward the end of his life, he became enamored with pigeons—and with one in particular. It would be easy to dismiss this chapter of his life as “a bizarre or pathetic turn of events,” Amanda Gefter wrote. “But in doing so, we’d miss something critical. For it wasn’t really a turn of events at all. In a way, they were all of a piece—the blazing currents, the ingenious inventions, the notion of conversing mind to mind—in a moment in time when the universe suddenly had been turned on its head, when the discovery of invisible waves from the electromagnetic spectrum opened up strange new spaces, and [the line between the possible and the impossible cut the shape of a wing.](” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, [browse our archive]( of past print issues, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2023 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Unsubscribe](