Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter about science, curiosity and whatever is under the North Pole, because I really can’t talk about that enough.
After last week’s thunderously popular edition about Nick Cave’s advice on finding hopefulness, for the good of my creative business I am just going to post Nick Cave quotes for the rest of the year. Welcome to the first edition of my newly rebranded newsletter Everything Is Nick Cave Quotes. Thanks for understanding.
(Or, as a much better idea, I could just point you towards his marvellous “strange exercise in communal vulnerability and transparency” website The Red Hand Files, where he answers pretty much every type of question flung his way. This is the edition that he read out while on Colbert’s show.)
In other news, WHAT THE ACTUAL…
This is from the shortlist for Astronomy Photographer Of The Year, rather than a promotional screenshot from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
Yup, it’s entirely authentic - and it’s not the only jaw-dropping image that Carine Letelier Baeza has taken of aurora, as you can see by clicking here.
So, to today’s business.
This is the next part in this season’s paid-subscribers-only look at the science of memory, which started with a profile of the most forgetful person in the world (that post is now unlocked so everyone can read it)…
….and then we considered the surprisingly memory-bolstering power of handwriting in a world that’s increasing using keyboards…
…and we asked why the song you’re least able to get out of your head is the most excruciatingly annoying song you’ve heard all year:
This time, our question is: how close is scientific research to developing a way for us to remember every detail of our entire lives - and what joys and nightmares might that unleash upon us?
Let’s take a big leap forward to see what might happen next.