The Odd Couple of Consciousness

In the fall 2026 issue of Discover, I speak with two philosophers who have sharply contrasting views on the nature of consciousness. In spite of their differences, Keith Frankish and …

The Stars Go Dark

I wrote about the rise and fall of Toronto’s McLaughlin Planetarium, for Spacing magazine. Look for it on select newsstands throughout Toronto, including the Spacing store at Harbourfront Centre.

Total solar eclipse!

I was privileged to see my seventh total solar eclipse on August 12, this time viewing from Port de Soller on the island of Mallorca. Although clouds interfered with the …

Beyond the LHC

Could the next giant particle collider unlock the mysteries of the universe? After nearly 20 years of operation, the discovery of the Higgs boson and several Nobel Prizes, physicists are …

Is there a second arrow of time?

The second law of thermodynamics famously pushes the universe toward disorder. Could there be another, overlooked law of nature at work, leading to increasing order? That’s the bold idea at …

The mystery of dark matter

It’s one of the great puzzles in astrophysics: The stars and galaxies that we can see through our best telescopes are only a small fraction of the matter that we …