Apparently, Italians find physics more sexy than S&M – at least for reading material. Since it was published last September, Carlo Rovelli's book Seven Brief Lessons on Physics has sold more copies in Rovelli's native country, Italy, than E.L. James' smash hit Fifty Shades of Grey, The Spectator reported. And the translated English copy has quickly risen to become Penguin's fastest-selling science debut in the publishing company's history. So what's Rovelli's secret?

There’s no need to spend money when you can fix something yourself. If you’ve popped a button on your shirt, worn down a hem on your pants, or busted a seam in your dress, these five hand sewing techniques can help you fix things in snap. By Patrick Allan.

Official working on Senate campaigns advises tapping Trump’s tactics, tone and look — but not getting too close. By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker.

Robert Macfarlane collects words that describe nature – and which are dying out. On the eve of the Paris climate talks, he explains how saving this language could save us all.

Living in transition, between cultures, we are discovering who we are. By Pamela Weintraub.

What if our universe is something like a computer simulation, or a virtual reality, or a video game? The proposition that the universe is actually a computer simulation was furthered in a big way during the 1970s, when John Conway famously proved that if you take a binary system, and subject that system to only a few rules (in the case of Conway’s experiment, four); then that system creates something rather peculiar.

Can’t afford an apartment in San Francisco? So-called “co-creative housing” is offering a bunkbed and lots of company. But is it legal? KPIX 5 wasn’t invited in. The only way to check it out was undercover. Heidi’s moving into her new digs. KPIX 5 asked her to go into a building in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District undercover to get an unbiased taste of a new kind of rental: It’s a bunkbed that she’s sharing with a stranger in a house with 30 other people.

The best class I took in college was on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Until that point, I had avoided philosophy of language as simply being too esoteric and hermetic to be of use. David Pears, a prodigious yet modest and approachable figure visiting from Oxford, changed my mind.