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Mushrooms and Our Search for Meaning

This essay was originally published as the cover story in the Summer 2025 issue of Orion Magazine. “Who are you?” the caterpillar barks at Alice from atop the giant mushroom, and Alice, never quite having considered the question, mutters a child’s version of Emily Dickinson’s

SpaceX will join Nasdaq-100

Adding SpaceX this quickly would make the Elon Musk company one of the first beneficiaries of Nasdaq's recently adopted fast-track inclusion framework.

Former Stars and Stripes ombudsman sues Pentagon over firing

Jacqueline Smith, the ombudsman of outlet Stars and Stripes who was ousted in April after she criticized the Pentagon’s new restrictions on the newspaper, is suing the Defense Department. In a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C., Smith alleges that

Uranus, Neptune may be magma worlds, not ice giants

Uranus and Neptune remain two of the most mysterious objects in the solar system, primarily because they have been visited only by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Their "ice giant" moniker comes from longstanding hypotheses that their interiors are

Oil prices are low. Why not gasoline?

{beacon} Energy & Environment Energy & Environment The Big Story Why are gas prices still so high? Oil is nearing its pre-war price after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) intended to end the conflict, but gasoline remains significantly

Back at it with Iran?

Welcome to The Hill's Defense & NatSec newsletter {beacon} Defense &National Security Defense &National Security The Big Story Back at it with Iran? The U.S. military said it conducted strikes against Iranian sites on Friday, less than an hour after President Trump indicated