Prime Is Here!

We’re excited to announce the launch of Nautilus Prime, our digital subscription service. Nautilus Prime gives users access to PDFs of each of our print magazines to read on your tablet or desktop; eBooks of each of our online issues; and exclusive subscriber-only feature content. Learn more here. This Sunday, we bring you a story about reading, and two peeks at Prime exclusive articles. 1. Paper Versus Pixel The science of reading shows that print and digital experiences are complementary. By Nicholas Carr Gutenberg we know. But what of the eunuch Cai Lun? A well-educated, studious young man, a close aide to the Emperor Hedi in the Chinese imperial court of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai invented paper one fateful day in the year 105 A.D. At the time, writing and drawing were done primarily on silk, which was elegant but expensive, or on bamboo, which was sturdy but cumbersome. Seeking a more practical alternative, Cai came up with the idea of mashing bits of tree bark and hemp fiber together in a little water, pounding the resulting paste flat with a stone mortar, and then letting it dry into sheets in the sun. The experiment was a success. Allowing for a few industrial tweaks, Cai’s method is still pretty much the way paper gets made today. READ MORE 2. The Rhythm of the Tide When I heard data from an island had proven humans are still evolving, I had to visit. By Scott Solomon Standing deep inside the archives of the Roman Catholic Church’s Canadian headquarters, it suddenly struck me that this was an odd place to find evidence that people are still evolving. That human evolution has continued into modern times was, until recently, a mostly theoretical idea debated among experts because there simply was no data. But as an evolutionary biologist, I had my own perspective. My research has mostly been on ants, which are common and diverse, making them ideal subjects for understanding evolutionary processes. In some ways ants and humans have a lot in common. Leafcutter ants create enormous underground nests that house millions of individuals, each with specialized tasks—not unlike our cities. READ MORE 3. The Loneliest Genius Isaac Newton spurned social contact but also relied on it for his greatest work. By Leonard Mlodinow Describing his life, shortly before his death, Newton put his contributions this way: “I don’t know what I may seem to the world, but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me.” READ MORE Subscribe today and get your copy of the latest issue of Nautilus. It includes new features, some of our best online content, and pages of award-winning illustration. Join us on a journey of surprises.