Cross Paper


Interview Of The Week: Adrienne Raphel On Crosswords

Uri Bram talks crosswords and poetry with Adrienne Raphel, author of Thinking Inside the Box, a cultural and personal history of crosswords.

Adrienne on cryptic clues:

The cryptic answer has everything you need inside it, but there is this learning curve too. I pulled this cryptic clue from my book, and it’s one that I think about a lot: The clue is "pretty girl in crimson rose". "Pretty girl" is a "belle", and then "in crimson" — the "in" means it’s going to be encasing on either side, and crimson is "red" — it’s "r-e" on one side, "d" on the other side. So it’s re-belle-d. Then "rose" means an uprising: "rebelled".

read the whole interview


Should We Get Rid Of The Scientific Paper?

Stuart Ritchie | Guardian | 11th April 2022

The answer in this case is Yes. (Betteridge's Law may need amending for op-ed pieces.) Publishing a scientific paper is a slow process, especially with peer-review. Journals prefer positive findings, and the more positive the better, encouraging sensationalism and exaggeration among researchers. Editors resist corrections when their reputation is at stake. Better to publish directly online (1,200 words)


Browser classified:

Are you the kind of person who digs deep questions? Us too. At the John Templeton Foundation, we feature the best ideas from the world’s top scientists, philosophers, and spiritual leaders in a free weekly email digest. Sign up now.

Should we get rid of these emails? We'd love you to swap them for the full Browser experience: five article recommendations, a podcast and a video, every night:

Join 150,000+ curious readers who grow with us every day

No spam. No nonsense. Unsubscribe anytime.

Great! Check your inbox and click the link to confirm your subscription
Please enter a valid email address!
You've successfully subscribed to The Browser
Welcome back! You've successfully signed in
Could not sign in! Login link expired. Click here to retry
Cookies must be enabled in your browser to sign in
search