SA Special Editions

The influential idea that in the past men were hunters and women were not isn’t supported by the available evidence

Medical, financial and ethical hurdles stand in the way of the dream to settle in space

It’s time to replace gross domestic product with real metrics of well-being and sustainability

Our influence is written in the geological strata

Two expeditions to the Thwaites Ice Shelf have revealed that it could splinter apart in less than a decade, hastening sea-level rise worldwide

Quality of life on an increasingly crowded planet depends on decisions made today

Technology is blurring the lines between consumers and producers, amateurs and professionals, and laypeople and experts. We’re just starting to understand the implications

Urban areas can improve the planet as well as people’s lives if we design them to be much more resourceful with energy, water, food and minerals

Vaccines and drugs drove a century of progress, but today’s contagions thrive on inequality

Cooperation made Homo sapiens the last human species standing

Parts of the brain involved in language and cognition have enlarged greatly over an evolutionary timescale

Making peace with the biosphere will require building communities and relationships that are focused on protecting life—human and nonhuman

Solving today’s complex, global problems will take interdisciplinary science

Darwin would be delighted by the story his successors have revealed

Power imbalances facilitate environmental degradation—and the poor suffer the consequences