The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, for work that “makes you laugh, then makes you think”, came and went this year, with a clutch of worthy winners. I must report, ...

Off the coast of an Italian island, an enormous cruise ship – seventeen floors high, three soccer pitches long – is tilting noticeably to one side. The local mayor is horrified: there are thousands of ...

There are at least two kinds of games, the religious scholar James Carse explained: “One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite ...

This story is presented in a choose-your-own-path style. If you happen to have a D20 on hand, feel free to roll for your choices. In 1984, ...

Thanks for your questions – fielded this time with the able assistance of Jacob Goldstein, the author of Money: The True Story of a Made Up Thing. “Thanks to Tim Harford’s characteristic wit and ...

The simplest and most reliable way to see everything I create is here on this blog, via RSS or email. (I don’t share your email or use it for any other purpose.) Try it! FT Subscribers If you have an ...

When Ernest Borgnine auditioned for the title role of Marty, he knew this could be his big break. Typecast as a bit-part thug, Borgnine was nearly 40, losing his hair and putting on weight. Marty ...

In 1979, Archie Cochrane published an essay chastising (not for the first time) his fellow doctors. “It is surely a great criticism of our profession,” he wrote, “that we have not organised a critical ...

Off the coast of an Italian island, an enormous cruise ship - seventeen floors high, three soccer pitches long - is tilting noticeably to one side. The local mayor is horrified: there are thousands of ...

There are at least two kinds of games, the religious scholar James Carse explained: “One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite ...