Nautilus

It Pays to Be a Space Case

Kieran Fox, a neuroscientist, says some of his colleagues see him as an “alien” because of all the time he takes off to let his mind wander.Photo Illustration by Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock

It’s a feeling we all know well—you’re at a work meeting or in the middle of a book, when you realize that you have no idea what just happened. Without noticing it, your thoughts have drifted away from you. 

Like many people, I’ve found my more than usual since March, when shelter-in-place measures destroyed what little structure I had cobbled together as a freelance writer and student. Suddenly, my tidy university office was replaced by half of a couch, my “work schedule” transformed into little more than a hypothetical idea. As I struggled to stay focused from the corner of our tiny 350-square-foot apartment, my thoughts drifted endlessly: from my work, to what to have for lunch, to whether our world was truly on the brink

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Nautilus

Nautilus4 min readMotivational
The Psychology of Getting High—a Lot
Famous rapper Snoop Dogg is well known for his love of the herb: He once indicated that he inhales around five to 10 blunts per day—extreme even among chronic cannabis users. But the habit doesn’t seem to interfere with his business acumen: Snoop has
Nautilus6 min read
The Prizefighters
Gutsy. Bloody-minded. Irresponsible. Devious. Cavalier. Reckless. Tough. There’s a Nobel Prize for each of those characteristics. The recipient of 2023’s Nobel for Medicine was certainly gutsy. To stay in the United States in 1988, Katalin Karikó, bo
Nautilus3 min read
The Animals That Turn Bodily Fluids into Weapons
Combat in nature is often a matter of tooth and claw, fang and talon. But some creatures have devised devious and dramatic ways to weaponize their bodily fluids, expelling them in powerful streams for the purposes of attack or self-defense.  Research

Related Books & Audiobooks