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From the archives

Between Words

Anne Carson’s new book-without-a-spine, and the spiritual experience of centrelessness

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

A postmodern elegy from our most original writer

Boredom as a Political Weapon

Saul Bellow fought banality—and taught us to look hard at the world

Alison Motluk

Alison Motluk is a Toronto journalist specializing in health and science.

Articles by
Alison Motluk

Copy of a Copy of a Copy

When genetic error is introduced October 2026
I write a lot about reproduction, so my way into this book, as with so many things these days, was sperm. Every day, men produce millions of new sperm, derived from stem cells, which have to replenish themselves through cell division. That involves copying the entire genome: the body’s complete set of instructions, which is about 3 billion “letters”…