This post was co-authored by Gregor U. Hayn-Leichsenring We are used to thinking about people, places, and things as beautiful. A particular combination of sensations evokes the pleasure that ...

The internet is stuffed with online quizzes and surveys, ranging from which "Friends" character you are to who you're about to vote for. But the BBC recently asked something more profound of its ...

CONSIDER a verbal description of the effect of gravity: drop a ball, and it will fall. That is a true enough fact, but fuzzy in the way that frustrates scientists. How fast does the ball fall? Does it ...

When mathematicians describe equations as beautiful, they are not lying. Brain scans show that their minds respond to beautiful equations in the same way other people respond to great paintings or ...

What were the most important equations of 20th-century science? Here are 11 essays, aimed at non-specialists, each centred on a different equation. The authors are distinguished in their various ...